Mass Effect: No Rest for the Wicked
by Blade for Hire
Summary: A year after Sovereign's destruction, a mysterious distress call from a colony near the Terminus Systems has Com. Gabriel Shepard taking the Normandy out again. But the answers he uncovers only lead to more questions. AU. Ch 12 up. A/N: Major revision coming soon; update in light of ME3.
1. Chapter 1

1

The Systems Alliance frigate _S.S.V. Normandy_ glided effortless through the emptiness of space. She was the fastest, stealthiest, and most advanced ship in the Alliance fleet, and had one of the finest crews a captain could ask for. All in all, the _Normandy_ was not to be trifled with.

Commander Gabriel Shepard stood leaning on the rail of the command platform overlooking the holographic galactic map in the CIC. He reached up to his face to scratch an itch beneath the small scar on his right cheek and ran his hand back through his thick, black hair. His piercing blue eyes darted around the CIC as he observed his crew going about their business. One crewman he paid particularly close attention to, being one Master Chief Ashley Williams-Shepard. She noticed him looking her way and subtly winked in return.

A lot had happened in the year since the Sovereign Incident. To start with, Gabriel had married the woman of his dreams. Most would be swinging a regs book at them and shouting about the rules of fraternization between officers, but there was a particular loophole there that Gabe shamelessly exploited. The regulation specifically forbade fraternization between commissioned officers. Ashley, however, was an NCO, so that rule could be tossed out the airlock in half a heartbeat. That, and Shepard's status as a Spectre meant he could bend the rules, which he had no qualms about doing in this case. It meant that Ashley would never be able to receive an officer's commission while Gabe was still an officer, but they both thought that was a small price to pay in return.

In addition to changes in Gabe's own personal life, a lot had changed in the galactic situation. As far as the Reapers were concerned, they were a non-issue. Shortly after cleaning up the little bits and pieces of Sovereign scattered all over the place, the Council gathered what would be known as the largest multi-species fleet in recorded history and jumped it through the Citadel Relay to attack the Reapers in dark space. The fleet was so big it took a solid three days for all of them to cycle through. When they arrived at the opposite relay in dark space, everyone found out that the fleet was massive overkill. Having never received Sovereign's activation signal, the hundreds of thousands of Reapers simply sat dormant, waiting for a call that never came. The fleet spent the next several days destroying each and every Reaper until no more were left. By the time they headed back into galactic space, no one was afraid of the return of the Reapers, because they had been destroyed as carefully and thoroughly as the Reapers themselves had destroyed all life in the galaxy numerous times over. A smile tickled the corner of Shepard's mouth as he thought about the irony of it.

In regards to politics, the human's acceptance onto the Council had changed a lot about them. Humans were no longer looked at as an inexorable wave of colonization, spreading across the galaxy like a virus. Instead, some races now looked at them as equals, others as superiors. Knowing that humanity had sacrificed many men and women to not only destroy Sovereign but rescue the Citadel Council on the _Destiny Ascension_ from the geth had changed how many races saw them.

Shepard scanned the CIC again and caught a familiar face. Garrus Vakarian was looking over Pressley's shoulder again. Garrus knew that Pressley wasn't particularly fond of turians, and used this knowledge to incessantly pester the XO. He saw Shepard looking at him and acknowledged him with a respectful nod.

The commander nodded in return, "Shouldn't you be checking on the Mako, Garrus?"

Garrus' shoulders shifted backward in a turian approximation of a shrug, "The Mako's in good condition. I see no reason to repair something that isn't broken."

Shepard gestured to the galactic map, "We may be using it soon. I want it in pristine condition when we do."

The turian nodded understandingly, "Last I checked, everything was fine, but I'll give it a once-over just to be sure."

Watching Garrus leave the CIC caused Shepard to reflect for a moment. Of the six people who helped him chase down Saren and Sovereign, only he, Ashley, and Garrus remained. Liara had left the team to take a research lead position at the newly formed Ilos research base. She said that she regretted leaving, but couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a look at ruins in as good condition as those on Ilos, as well as the opportunity to put Vigil's knowledge to the test with a liturgy of questions. Ashley and Tali took her leaving particularly hard, since the three girls had formed something of a triad of friends during their travels.

Speaking of Tali'Zorrah nar Rayya, whose name had subsequently changed to Tali'Zorrah vas Conrayk upon the completion of her Pilgrimage, she made good on her promise to return to the Migrant Fleet. The data on the geth they'd collected while pushing back an incursion into the Armstrong Cluster had proven most valuable to the quarians. Tali stayed in regular contact with Ash and Liara, maintaining their friendship triangle. Last Shepard had heard, Tali was now the XO of her ship and was dating a fine young quarian man, an admiral's son, interestingly enough.

Urdnot Wrex had left the group to head to Virmire on his own self appointed quest. His hope was to find some of the remaining krogan that Saren had cured of the genophage. If he could find some, he would hire a scientist to examine blood samples and try to replicate the cure.

Remembering Saren's Virmire facility reminded Shepard about Kaiden. Lt. Kaiden Alenko had nobly given his life during the salarian assault on that base. Unfortunately, in the year following, a proper BDA had never been conducted, so Shepard didn't even know if there was a body left to bury.

Shepard pried his thoughts from his reverie and hit the intercom button on the rail he was leaning on, "Status report, Joker."

"_Still twenty minutes out from the Dracos Colony, commander. All systems running solid._"

The commander nodded, "Engage stealth systems when we get closer and keep an ear open for comm traffic."

"_Will do, sir._"

He closed the comm and looked at the galactic map. In spite of so much good going on in the galaxy, peace was the last thing that was settling in. A number of pirate and mercenary groups had taken full advantage of the chaos of the Sovereign incident and had expanded their operations. Several shipping lanes near the Terminus Systems now required a full military escort just to get from one relay to the next. One planet in the Terminus had even openly declared their status as a "free" pirate world. Everyone knew it wouldn't last long, though. The armed forces of the Council races were already taking steps to make the pirates' lives as miserable as possible.

Pirates and mercenaries wasn't what was on Shepard's mind right now. His present assignment was his concern. The Dracos Colony, a human/turian joint colony that was a lot closer to the Traverse than most cared for, had dropped out of contact very suddenly almost two days ago, although their last communiqué was telling enough. A brief distress call followed by static; a good indicator that they were in trouble. There was a lot more to it than that, though. Something was wrong with this, Shepard could feel it. Something wasn't right here. It was the same feeling he'd gotten on Akuze shortly before the thresher maws attacked. The Council must have had the same bad feeling about it all, too, otherwise they wouldn't have sent a Spectre for such a routine investigation.

The intercom came to life again, "_Four minutes out, commander. Dracos dead ahead._"

Shepard nodded, "Any comm traffic?"

"_I've been listening for a while now, but there hasn't been so much as a burp on any channel. Either the colony's comm systems are down, or worse._"

The commander nodded again, "Let's just hope it's not worse. Drop us in the Mako about a click outside the colony." He looked around the CIC at the people he needed, "Ashley, Garrus, you're with me. We're going down there to see what's going on."

The shore party suited up and waited in the Mako while Joker brought them in for the drop. The hold door in front of them opened, revealing the lime green skies of Dracos. Once the door was down, Shepard floored the pedal, stirring up smoke from the tires as they lost grip for a moment before shooting them out the open door. They dropped in freefall for several long seconds before he hit the boosters, slowing their drop to something far less lethal. Shepard had done so many Mako drops in his career that he could sleep through them by now. They hit the ground with a hard thud and skidded around backward before coming to a stop. Shepard craned his neck to look out at the ground. The planet's gravelly surface didn't much lend itself to grip. He'd have to drive a little more carefully. He jammed the pedal down again, kicking up probably several kilos of loose sand and gravel before the tires found purchase and started them on their way. Garrus marked the colony's location on the nav system and Shepard put them on course for it.

After several minutes of driving covering a kilometer's distance, the colony came into view on the horizon. At least, what was left of the colony came into view. Enormous pillars of black smoke billowed into the air from several places along the low cityscape. That spelled "trouble" with a capital "T".

Garrus lowered a pair of binoculars he was looking through, "There are no flames, explosions, or signs of conflict across the colony. Whatever hit them is gone by now."

Ashley scoffed from behind him, "Looks like BDA and burial detail then."

They pulled up to the colony's perimeter wall and slowed in front of a gate that opened automatically. The party drove through the gate and Shepard pulled the Mako to a stop. He slipped his helmet on before climbing out of the vehicle, setting foot onto the gritty terrain and looking around. Whoever came through here had been thorough, if not messy. Bodies of the colonists lay scattered all over the place; thrown in the streets, strewn on sidewalks, laying across burning vehicles; it was a mess. Not a soul left alive.

Shepard fanned his arm across the area, "Spread out. Check for survivors." He started walking toward a cluster of bodies, looking at the results of this massacre. He squatted down to get a closer look at one, a turian. Deep burns covered the torso and legs, some holes burned big enough to fit a hand in. Shepard looked around at the mess and wondered to himself. Who would do this, and why? Dracos was a fairly small backwater colony with little importance to speak of. The colony was owned by a small enclave of businessmen, but the colony itself wasn't particularly wealthy. The thorium mines and the spaceport were the only real points of interest on Dracos. It couldn't have been slavers or pirates. They would want the populace alive, not slaughtered to the last man, woman, and child like this. Shepard frowned. They weren't even an hour into their investigation yet and it was already clear that there was more here than meets the eye.

His comm beeped and he held two fingers up to the side of his helmet, "Shepard."

"_Commander, it's Garrus. I've found something that I think you should see._"

He nodded, "I'm on my way." He stood and checked his suit sensors to get Garrus' location before heading over there. He found the turian agent in a street standing over the burned out hulk of a contragravity speeder, running a scanner beam from his omni-tool over it. Shepard walked up next to him and tapped his arm to get his attention.

Garrus glanced at Shepard briefly before looking back at the speeder, "I've been scanning this wreck for the last ten minutes, but I can't figure it out."

Shepard stepped closer and looked at Garrus' omni-tool, "What can't you figure out?"

The turian held his arm so both of them could see the tool's display, "The residual energy signatures on this wreckage are unlike anything I've ever seen. I've been trying to match it with something in the database, but so far I haven't come up with anything."

The human commander shrugged, "It may be our dear old friends, the geth. The Alliance found inconsistent energy signatures like this on some of the bodies from Eden Prime."

Garrus shook his head slowly, "I'm not so sure about that. This is definitely different."

Shepard was about to continue when his comm beeped again, "_Commander, I think I've found something that can help us. I'm at the local marine barracks._"

He nodded, "We'll be right there, Ash." He looked up at Garrus and jerked his head toward where they were going, "Get what you can from that thing and let's go. Maybe what Ashley turned up will help piece this together." Garrus killed his omni-tool and both set out for the barracks. When they arrived, they found Ashley sitting on a small supply crate, fiddling with something.

Shepard nodded to his wife as they approached, "What you got there, hon?"

She kept working with it, "Marine helmet. Its wearer was quite dead. The recorder looks like it's intact…" Her hand came out with a jerk and she cursed, "If I can ever get it out."

Garrus solved her problem by simply touching a button on the side of the helmet and catching the ejected memory module before it fell.

Ash looked at him and her eyes widened, "Oh. I thought they came out from the inside."

Shepard smiled and shook his head, "I would have figured you knew that, Ash."

She just shrugged, "Hey, I just break the armor. I don't fix it."

Garrus inserted the module into his omni-tool and pressed several buttons. He held his hand out toward the barracks and projected the image on the wall. It started out simply enough. It looked like just another day at work. People were walking around the colony, going about their daily business. The marine whose recording this was looked around. From what they could see, the marine was on guard somewhere nearby where they presently were. The marine looked around briefly before looking down at his hand, holding his wallet with a picture of a little girl in it, presumably a daughter.

Shepard sat down next to Ashley and put his hand on her shoulder, "I wonder if he knew he was being recorded."

"Doubtful." Ash shrugged and leaned against her husband a little, "Probably a practical joke by one of his squad mates."

Garrus continued to look at the recording, "Whatever it is, hopefully it'll lead to some answers about what happened here."

The marine put his wallet away and checked over his rifle once before going back to looking around. A couple other marines came over and started to talk to him, their conversation amounting to nothing more than idly bulling around and shooting the breeze.

What happened next had everyone intrigued. While the soldiers were chatting it up, suddenly the camera view jostled hard. The view looked around frantically before settling in on a patch of ground that was struck by several blue-white blasts of energy, each spot consequently exploding in a column of dirt. The view turned around and started following the rest of the troops toward the barracks. They made it to the front of the barracks when the view jostled hard again, flying backward through the air before going to static upon landing.

Garrus turned off the image and turned to look at the Shepards, "I'm sorry to say that that wasn't very useful. It only told us what we already know, that they were attacked."

Shepard sat on the crate thinking, drumming his fingers on Ashley's shoulder, "We might be able to get some readings on whatever weapon energy that was."

Ashley sat up and scratched her neck, "They looked like geth armature blasts to me."

Garrus shook his head, "I don't think so. Geth armature blasts have a fairly slow airspeed. Those blasts were moving faster, and they looked different."

The commander stood up and looked around, "Well, whatever they were, they did a lot of damage." He pointed at Garrus' omni-tool, "Let's get that recording and your scan data back to the _Normandy_. We can go over it and maybe…"

"Yes!"

Shepard whipped around at hearing the voice behind him and had his pistol in hand and deployed before he saw that it was a civilian. He was filthy, covered head to toe in dirt, ash, and sand.

He staggered toward them and reached out as though to give them something, "Thank God! I've been stuck here for days. I thought I'd never see another living being again." He fell to his knees when he got to them and just sat there, trembling. Shepard stowed his weapon and motioned for the others to do the same as he knelt down in front of the survivor.

Shepard kept his tone even and consoling, "Are you all right?"

The survivor just hung his head, "If you'd seen what I've seen, you'd say 'no', too."

"What happened here?"

The man looked up at Shepard and shuddered before looking up and around, "They came out of nowhere, out of the sky, like angels of fire, raining death as they flew. They came to the ground from their ships and just…just started killing. Killing, killing everyone. I don't know how I survived." He stood up and staggered around, looking and motioning upward in a haze, "They flew…they flew large ships, with wings like a demon. The small ships, the fighters, came in endless waves, raining fire and death, destroying everything. Then…then the big ships came. They hovered over the city, and suddenly they just appeared. They appeared in the streets, in the park, on the buildings, they just appeared."

Shepard stood and grabbed the man's shoulder to steady him, "Hold on now. What do you mean they just 'appeared'?"

The man appeared to get angry at the question, "Just what I said! They just appeared. You don't believe me, then you should have been there. There was a bright flash and they appeared, out of nowhere. They just appeared!"

Shepard shook his head, "Who's 'they'?"

The man's eyes widened and the color drained from his face, "Death."

Something struck the man hard in the back. Shepard caught the body as it fell forward, the big, black burn in the middle of his back the likely culprit. He dropped the man's body as he pulled his assault rifle from his back to return fire. More blue-white pulses flew by, missing wide or high, with one striking his barriers. He dove and rolled behind the crate he was sitting on earlier, pulling it up on its side to present broader cover. Ashley dropped flat against the ground and rolled behind a bench while Garrus ducked for a low garden wall. A quick check of his displays showed that Shepard had lost fifteen percent of his KBs to enemy fire. He removed the safety on his rifle and leaned around his cover to see who the assailants were. A relatively humanoid form with a flashlight head; a squad of geth were advancing on their position, taking cover and firing to cover each other's movements. Shepard pulled a grenade from his belt and loaded it with an HE charge before flinging it toward the geth formation. It stuck in the ground in the middle of the group and Shepard hit the detonator. The Mk. VIII high explosive charge lifted a column of dirt into the air with the blast, killing two of the eight synthetics and scattering rest of the geth formation. Ashley and Garrus wheeled out of their cover and began laying down suppressive fire on the geth. Shepard jumped out from his cover and ran forward for several meters before dropping to one knee and opening up with a long burst of automatic fire, sweeping over the geth's cover and causing them to duck down. He pointed back at Garrus and jabbed two fingers forward toward the geth. Without hesitation, the turian activated his omni-tool and sent an overload charge into the middle of the geth group, dropping their KBs and forcing them down again.

Shepard laid down another arc of suppressive fire and signaled for Ashley to advance. She followed the order and stood from her cover, running up to a few meters off Shepard's left flank. Shepard swung his hand toward the geth, signaling an advance, before setting the overcharge on his rifle's cooling unit and kinetic stabilizer, activating what marines affectionately referred to as "Overkill". The overcharge wouldn't last long, so he needed to be quick. He stood and started moving on the geth position with Ashley off his flank, keeping the closest one's cover sighted. The synth stood from behind its cover to fire, but Shepard was ready for it. He squeezed the trigger, opening up a full-auto burst of tungsten VII rounds. The geth shuddered under the hail of bullet impacts before dropping dead on its back. Another stood to fire, but Ashley lit it up with full-auto burst fire. One geth peeked over the low stone wall it was using as cover only to have its head cored like an apple by a round from Garrus' sniper rifle. The remaining three geth all stood from their cover at once and started firing, trying to drive them back. Shepard snap-tossed another HE grenade toward them before diving for a rock one of the synths was hiding behind. The explosion made it rain sand for a moment before Shepard stood to assess what was left. Only two geth remained, and they were retreating as best they could. They couldn't run for very long before the combination of automatic fire and sniper fire ended their artificial existences. Shepard walked up to the last one, keeping it sighted, and kicked it to make sure it was dead before stowing his rifle. He set his assault rifle on his back and turned around to his wife. She was little more than winded, signaling she was okay with a smile and a thumbs-up. Garrus approached them carrying his sniper rifle on his shoulder.

Shepard looked at Garrus and motioned to the geth bodies, "Will you believe me now when I say it's geth?"

The turian shrugged, "Give me a few minutes to get some scans of their weapons, and we'll see." He collapsed his rifle and put it away before bringing up his omni-tool and running it over a black score mark made by a geth pulse rifle. He did so with several blast marks before returning to where Shepard and Ashley were waiting.

Garrus shook his head as he looked at his omni-tool, "I hate to say it, Shepard, but I still don't believe you. I've found exact matches on all the samples I've collected of geth energy weapons, but I still don't have a match for those energy patterns I found earlier."

Ashley pulled her helmet off and ran a hand through her hair, "I think I have to go with Garrus on this one, honey. The geth fall from their dropships like bird crap, _then_ start killing things. They don't just 'appear' like that man said. So far, whoever hit this place, the MO doesn't match anyone we know."

Shepard scratched his chin under his helmet as he thought. Unmatched energy signature. Unknown deployment method. He finally had to admit that who or whatever hit this place, they were a new player in the game. He nodded slowly as an indicator to the others that they'd convinced him.

Shepard held two fingers up to his helmet as he opened his comm, "Joker, status."

"_Everything's quiet up here, commander, but we did detect some gunfire down on the surface. You guys alright down there?_"

Shepard nodded, "We're all fine. Had to beat back a geth raiding party. Come to my position for evac."

"_Roger that. Secure and aweigh. ETA: six minutes._"

Shepard closed his comm and checked the scene again when he noticed Garrus fiddling with one of the geth's heads.

He raised an eyebrow, "Garrus, what are you doing?"

The turian finally pried the skull plate free, "Tali showed me how to extract data from a geth memory core before she left. I want to see if one of these guys knows what happened here." He carefully removed the fried memory core and looked it over, his mandibles opening and closing as he studied it.

The _Normandy_ wasted no time in arriving and picked up the shore party before heading back into orbit. They set course for the nearest relay to get back into friendly space while they studied their findings. Shepard walked into the bridge to find Joker glued to his chair, as always, and Garrus working on one of the consoles. He walked over and leaned against the wall as he looked over the turian's shoulder.

He nodded to the console, "Did you get anything?"

Garrus' hands continued to work over the buttons, "Like Tali said, 'If you're quick, careful, and lucky'. I did manage to get some information out of the core. Unfortunately, I think it only thickens the plot."

"What do you mean?"

The turian shook his head, "I haven't determined it for sure, but I think this geth was under orders to investigate what happened to the colony. It looks like they're just as curious as we are." Garrus hit several buttons and something on the screen began to beep, "Ah, good. The cipher decryption's done." He opened the file and shook his head when he read it, "This confirms it, Shepard. The geth don't know any more about what happened at Dracos than we do."

Shepard furrowed his brow and slowly shook his head, "So if the geth don't know, and we don't know, than who does know what hit the colony?"

Garrus looked up over his shoulder at Shepard, "I think the only ones who can tell us are all dead."

Shepard sighed, "That's what I was afraid of." He looked over his shoulder at Joker, "Joker, shoot this report off to the Council. They need to know what's going on here."

Joker nodded as he sent off the report, "Oh yeah, they're going to love this one. An entire colony exterminated by an unknown enemy that just appears, kills everyone, and vanishes." He paused and sniffed through his nose several times, "Hey, commander. I think I smell another crap assignment coming your way."

"We need to figure out who or what did this before they hit again." Shepard turned to head back to the CIC. It would have been nice for a little bit of quiet time in the wake of the Sovereign Incident, but it looked like there truly was no rest for the wicked.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Shepard paced a slow circle in the briefing room. They'd sent the Dracos report off to the Council over an hour ago and still had no word from them. Normally they were very prompt in responding to Spectre reports, but for some reason they seemed to be taking it slow this time.

"You look anxious." Shepard looked over his shoulder to see Ashley walking in.

He shrugged, "They're taking their sweet time getting back to us on the Dracos report."

Ashley draped her arms around Shepard's shoulders, "Let them be slow. It gives us a chance to be alone."

Shepard smiled as he turned around to face his wife, "You know, we don't get many chances to be alone these days."

Ashley nodded and smiled in return, "I know. You've got a lot going on, being a Spectre and all." She leaned in close to his face, "I think I know how to get your mind off it all."

The commander smirked as he leaned in toward her and their lips came close.

"_Commander, we've got a transmission for you on Citadel channels._"

Shepard stopped short of kissing his wife and thought every curse and slander he could think of against Joker, the Council, and his rotten luck. Of all the times they could call, why did it have to be _now?_

Shepard leaned back and sighed, "Give me a second and then patch it through, Joker."

"_Will do, sir. And, just out of curiosity, did I interrupt something?_"

He looked at Ashley and shrugged, "No, not at the moment." Ash snickered quietly and nodded understandingly. She kissed his cheek before turning and leaving the comm room. After taking a few deep breaths to collect himself, Shepard turned toward the holopedestals and stood at parade rest as the holograms of the four Council members came to life.

The asari councilor acknowledged him with a nod, "_Greetings, commander. We've received your report on the Dracos colony. It is troubling, indeed._"

Councilor Anderson shifted uneasily, "_We apologize for taking so long to get back to you, but we needed some extra time to review your findings. Needless to say, they turn up a number of questions._"

The turian councilor nodded, "_This is a matter that concerns mostly turians and humans, but the all of the council races have shown some apprehension about it._"

Shepard cocked an eyebrow, "So are you ruling out any associate member species being the attacker?"

The salarian councilor nodded in return, "_The energy readings your inductee has collected match nothing in the Citadel database, commander. The data is still under analysis, but so far it appears to be a powerful weapon of unknown design, and obviously not geth or Reaper technology._"

Shepard nodded as he listened. The councilor's reference to Garrus as an inductee still caught him off guard. Garrus had gone back to C-Sec for a short time, but that ended quickly when the turian agent was selected for Spectre evaluation. He was coming to the end of a four month evaluation period, little more than protocol at this point, that Shepard had been assigned to conduct.

Shepard shrugged, "So what does that leave us with?"

Anderson mimicked the shrug, "_To be perfectly honest, commander, we don't know. This is technology we're unfamiliar with. But we do know that whoever did this needs to be found and stopped._"

"Do we have any other leads to go off of?"

The turian councilor shook his head, "_Nothing other than the data you gathered at Dracos. We will keep you advised if we learn anything more on the situation._"

The asari agreed, "_The only thing we can suggest is to study the data as thoroughly as possible and see if it reveals any answers. We will keep you informed, commander. Good luck._" With that final word, the images of the Council vanished from the air. Shepard stood there in the room for the moment, staring into the space the holograms had just been, mulling over his options. Unfortunately, he didn't have any. The Council had no leads, Alliance Intel probably knew even less, and all he had was Garrus' sensory data. This may get a little tight. They might have to head back to the Citadel to get a tech to look at the data to get something they can use. Shepard turned and left the comm room on his way around to the hold when Garrus stopped him in the hallway.

The turian tapped Shepard's shoulder from behind to get his attention, "Commander, do you have a moment?"

Shepard turned around to face him, "I'm kind of busy right now, Garrus."

Garrus simply nodded, "I'll be quick, but I think it's important."

The commander nodded and crossed his arms, "What's on your mind?"

Garrus leaned against the wall, "I've been thinking about the data we gathered on Dracos. It's unlike anything I've ever seen, but then I'm no scientist. On the other hand, we both know someone who is."

Shepard cocked his head forward slightly, "You saying we should bring the data to Liara?"

The turian agent nodded and shrugged, "It couldn't hurt to have an actual scientist take a look at it."

Shepard furrowed his brow, "She's at the Ilos research station, well within the Terminus Systems."

Garrus motioned to the ship, "_Normandy_ got us in and out once. I'd bet she can do it again. And this time we'd have the Council's permission."

The human Spectre nodded slowly as he thought for a moment, "Sounds like a plan. Head up to the bridge and tell Joker to get us on course for the Mu Relay."

"Aye, sir." Garrus turned to head up to the bridge. Shepard resumed his course toward the hold, thinking about Garrus' idea. It was sound, and a whole lot better than what they had, which was nothing. Shepard shook his head as he stepped off the lift and turned right to speak to the quartermaster. Nothing's ever easy, especially when you seem to have an aura that makes people think you enjoy being in harm's way.

------------

Ilos was a sickly yellow rust color from space. Having been on the surface previously, Shepard knew the groundside wasn't much different looking. Ilos was a Prothean researcher's dream come true. The planet was covered in ruins that were in very good condition given their age. As was evidenced by their last visit here, the ruins were in good enough condition that some of the internal systems were still functioning. In spite of the somewhat frantic nature of their first visit, Shepard nearly had to order a crewman to mop up Liara's drool as she ogled the ruins from the air, and she nearly laid a golden egg when she heard that there was a working Prothean VI in the ruin.

Joker brought the ship into orbit and called in to the research station, "Ilos Station, this is _S.S.V. Normandy_, requesting vector and a berth."

The response was a little long in coming before a familiar female voice came over the comm, "_Affirmative, _Normandy_, transmitting vector and landing coordinates now. Welcome back to Ilos, Com. Shepard._"

Joker flew the ship down into atmosphere and came around to the area where he was told to land, which was little more than a flat patch of dirt with the fewest vines growing across it. Everyone expected trouble this far into the Terminus, so everyone who left the ship did so in full combat armor. Shepard finished setting the last few latches of his Predator H VII armor system, snapped all his weapons into the appropriate places, and attached his grenade dispenser where it belonged. He figured that if he was going to be prepared for the worst, might as well be _fully_ prepared. Shepard, Ashley, Garrus, and a few various marines all descended the hold ramp. They were greeted by a group of the scientists, one of which being an asari that everyone recognized.

Liara immediately threw her arms around Ash, "Ashley, it is so good to see you again." Their embrace came apart as Liara stepped back and smiled, "And congratulations on your marriage to Com. Shepard. I always sensed that you two were meant for each other."

Ashley smiled and playfully batted Shepard's arm, "He's a little rough around the edges, but I'll work on him." Shepard simply rolled his eyes in response.

"I imagine you will." Liara's smile faded, "Although, I am sure that you did not come all the way here to Ilos just to say hello. I would wager that Spectre business has brought you here."

Shepard nodded, "You wagered right." He looked over his shoulder, "Garrus, show the good doctor what you've got."

Garrus called up his omni-tool and walked up to Liara to show her, "The Dracos colony in the Traverse was attacked recently. Whoever did it left no survivors. We took these energy readings from some wreckage in the colony. Our efforts to get anything useful out of it are coming up dry and we hoped that you might fair better."

Liara's eyes darted back and forth across the tool's display as she studied the readings. After a long moment she looked up at them.

"These readings are fascinating. Unfortunately, energy sciences are not my field. However, I do know someone who can help you." She looked over her shoulder, "Dr. Kaissen, could I have a moment?"

A lanky man with a long face and thinning grey hair came over, "Of course, Dr. T'soni. What do you need?"

Liara motioned to Garrus' omni-tool, "What do you make of these energy readings?"

Dr. Kaissen looked at the tool's display and his eyes widened, "These…This…This is impossible." He looked at Garrus, "Where did you get this?"

Garrus shrugged slightly, "It was residual energy from a weapon of unknown design."

The doctor just stared at the display, "This can't be. It just can't be done, not with current technology."

Shepard furrowed his brow, "What is it? What can't be done?"

Dr. Kaissen looked up from the display and his mouth formed a firm line as he thought, "Hmm. This will take some time to explain. Please, right this way. We have a lounge in the central building. I'll explain there."

The shore party and scientists all gathered in the central building lounge. Several assistants tended to refreshments while Dr. Kaissen stood near a projector screen.

He wrung his hands together before beginning, "I never thought in my wildest dreams to be giving a brief on this subject matter, but here I am. Agent Vakarian has somehow discovered energy patterns that show signs of focused dark energy."

Shepard sat back on the couch he was on and put his arm around Ashley, "What's dark energy?"

Dr. Kaissen pressed several buttons on a nearby console, dimming the lounge lights and activating the screen which displayed a number of bar graphs, "Dark energy, until now, was only a hypothetical form of energy that is thought to permeate all of space. In energy sciences and physics, anything referred to as 'dark' is something that doesn't produce enough electromagnetic energy of its own to be observed directly. The only way to observe it is by cataloguing gravitational and spatial effects surrounding it. It wasn't until about fifty years ago that dark matter was confirmed to exist, but dark energy has never been able to be proven. It's theorized that biotic powers are manipulations of dark energy, but that's only the best theory that anyone's come up with so far." He used a pointer from his own omni-tool to refer to the bar graphs, "There are various energy levels produced from different sources, like solar ionization power or matter-antimatter annihilation. Comparatively, if it could be properly harnessed, this is the energy potential of dark energy." He referred to several bars representing known energy types, all of them dwarfed by the bar representing dark energy that was nearly four times longer.

Dr. Kaissen shut off the screen and brought up the lights, "Obviously, a tremendous power potential. If it could be harnessed as a weapon, as Agent Vakarian has found, the possibilities could be limitless."

Shepard leaned forward and rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, we've seen some of what they can do, but what kind of 'limitless' are we talking here, doctor."

Dr. Kaissen began wringing his hands together again, "Well…It…It's been theorized that a dark energy weapon could…well, you could build one powerful enough to destroy the surface of an entire planet."

Shepard's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. A weapon that could destroy the surface of an entire world? Whoever had this weapon could have the galaxy by the neck if they wanted.

Shepard nodded as the realization sunk in, "So what you're saying is…" His comm beeped and he held two fingers up to his earpiece, "Shepard."

"_Commander, we're getting an urgent transmission from the Citadel. Highest priority. The Council needs to talk to you, like, yesterday._"

He nodded, "I'm on my way." He stood and looked at the rest of the shore party, pointing to Dr. Kaissen, "Ash, Garrus, pick his brain for anything we can get on dark energy weapons and meet me back at the _Normandy_." Shepard left the central building and double-timed it to the ship. He didn't bother gearing down and went straight to the comms room. He walked into the circular room and hit the button on the hologram pedestal, bringing up the four holograms of the Councilors.

The turian councilor nodded to him, "_Commander, an urgent situation has developed that requires your immediate attention. Several colonies along the borders of the Traverse and Citadel space have been attacked. We need you to investigate._"

Shepard furrowed his brow, "Is this part of my investigation into Dracos?"

The salarian councilor nodded, "_We believe that the attacks are related, given their proximity to one another. The Dracos Colony was attacked only a few days ago, and now we have reports of these four other colonies coming under attack. Obviously, cause to believe they are relevant._"

Shepard nodded, "I can tell this is a problem, but I'm only one Spectre. A set normal investigation teams would be quicker, wouldn't it?"

The turian shook his head, "_We already tried that. We sent one of our heavy cruisers to the Andros Colony to look into the attacks. They reported nearing the colony, but dropped out of contact shortly after._"

Anderson nodded in response, "_As you can tell, commander, this is becoming a matter of great concern. The colonies attacked were not just human and turian this time, but asari, salarian, volus, and hanar colonies. It's clear that this isn't just some vendetta against any one particular race, but possibly a vendetta against the Council races as a whole. Your prompt attention into the matter would be greatly appreciated._"

Shepard nodded, "We'll get underway immediately."

The turian nodded, "_Andros was the most recently attacked. If there's anything to be learned, it will be fresh on the scene there._"

The asari nodded to him, "_Good luck, commander. We'll be waiting for your report._"

The holograms faded out and Shepard hit the comm button, "Joker, tell the shore party to wrap it up and get ready to dust off in ten minutes."

Joker was a moment in responding, "_Uh, yeah, about the shore party, commander. They're down in the hold and they want to talk to you._"

Shepard rolled his eyes, "Seems like I'm a popular guy today. I'll be right there." He left the comms room and took the stairs and lift down to the hold. When the lift door opened, Shepard found his shore party with one inclusion.

Ashley motioned back to Liara, "Gabe, Liara wants to come along."

Shepard's eyes darted from Ash to Liara and he raised an eyebrow, "What about your duties here?"

Liara shook her head, "If this situation is as dangerous as it sounds, it could be almost as bad as the Sovereign Incident. I want to help in whatever way I can. The ruins will always be here when I get back."

The commander smiled and nodded, "Good to have you back, Liara."

She nodded to him, "Thank you, commander. My field is the Protheans, but I have all of Dr. Kaissen's notes and research on dark energy, and I am a fast learner, so I will do what I can."

Shepard nodded again and addressed everyone, "We're pulling out of here. The Council's just given word that four more colonies have been attacked. We're headed to the Andros Colony in the Voyager Cluster to investigate. We're also looking to make contact with a turian heavy cruiser that the Council sent ahead of us. Everyone to your stations. Let's move." He turned back into the lift to head to the CIC. The plot was thickening. Not only did this unknown assailant take no prisoners, but they had weapons that could destroy whole worlds if they wanted to, and they were out to kill anything in their path. Whoever they were, they had to be stopped. Shepard walked off the lift with a determination in his step. He already had the memories of losing his entire unit that haunted him from time to time. He wasn't about to let losing an entire planet be added to that list.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Finding a relay to get to the Voyager Cluster wasn't the hard part. The slow ride to the opposite side of the cluster to the system where Andros was located was the hard part. A crewman came up to Shepard with a status report and handed it to him. After looking it over and signing off on it, he handed it back. As the crewman walked away, Shepard could feel his tension. Everyone was tense. Shepard could see the nervous looks on some of his crew's faces. He couldn't help but be nervous right along with them. When he was chasing down Saren, at least he knew what he was dealing with for the most part. In this case, the only things he knew about his opponent was that they had powerful weaponry and they took no prisoners. Besides that, they new nothing, and if information was power, they were extremely weak right now.

The comm on the handrail beeped and Shepard answered it, "_Commander, Garrus and the asari doctor lady are up here in the bridge. They're saying they've come up with something and think you should get a look at it._"

Shepard nodded, "I'm on my way." He killed the comm and stepped off the command platform to head up to the bridge. When he arrived, he found Garrus sitting at one of the consoles with Liara looking over his shoulder.

The commander walked up next to Liara to look over Garrus' other shoulder, "You've got something?"

Garrus nodded, "We've been reviewing the Dracos marine's recording. We figured it was worth a shot to see if we could get any more information on these mysterious attackers. I figured that it would just be reviewing old information, but I was pleased to learn that there was more when Liara pointed out that the monitor showed we were only half way through it. Unfortunately, the rest of the recording is badly corrupted, but I've managed to recover some of it. I think you want to see this." He hit several buttons on the console and the recording started on the screen, picking up at the point where the marines were running toward the barracks. Like before the view jostled and flew through the air, going to static upon landing.

Liara pointed at the screen, "As best we can tell, that burst of static covers several hours of time."

Shepard nodded when the screen resumed the recording, very fuzzy and periodically flipping between color and monochrome, but still viewable. The marine was lying on his back, staring face up at the lime green sky. From the way the view was slowly panning back and forth, the marine was barely conscious and trying to wake up. As the marine was lying there, something came on the screen. A large figure walked up from somewhere off-screen to stand over the marine. It was hard to tell with the badly damaged image, but it looked like it was wearing head-to-toe bone white armor with a skull-like faceplate and holding a long, rifle-like weapon. It looked down at the unconscious marine, revealing large, glassy, luminescent yellow eyes through the helmet's eyeholes. It studied the marine for a moment before pointing its weapon down and firing a blue-white blast into his chest. The view jerked again as the marine died, gunned down in cold blood. The armored figure looked up and away, walking off the screen before the image faded to static again.

Garrus turned to look over his shoulder, "If I can clean this image up a little, we'll have a good look at one of them, whatever they are."

Shepard nodded, "So at least we have a vague idea of who we're fighting here. Good job, Garrus."

"Commander." Garrus held up his hand to stop Shepard before he could turn to leave, "Dr. T'soni made an interesting observation earlier about the figure in the recording."

The human commander looked at her as she took a deep breath to collect her thoughts, "I am not really sure, and I would want to study the image after it has been cleaned up before making any final conclusions, but it looked like…" she paused and shook her head, "The armor the creature was wearing, it looks almost…almost Prothean."

Shepard's brow furrowed, "Prothean?"

Liara shook her head, still staring at the monitor, "I can tell that it is not actually Prothean, but there are some vaguely Prothean elements about it."

Shepard nodded and thought for a moment, "Garrus, reverse the recording and hold it about half way through."

Garrus followed the order and rewound the recording. The image played backward at high speed until it came to the point where Shepard specified, the part where the armored figure was just pulling the trigger on the marine.

"What about that, Liara?" Shepard leaned forward and pointed at part of the screen, "What do you make of that?" He pointed out a small ship up in the corner of the screen, probably a fighter, in the sky in the background. The fighter was the same bone white color and had a bat-like appearance, with a long and thin fuselage and crooked wings that curved backward sharply to a point.

Liara looked at the ship for a moment and shook her head, "No, that is definitely not Prothean. It does have some hints of Prothean design in it, but I have seen archives of every Prothean ship design, and that is not one of them."

Shepard crossed his arms, "So, we know what they look like, at least vaguely, and we know they use aspects of Prothean design in their ships and technology, which means they more than likely have mass-effect technology, also. Add that to the dark energy weapons and 'take no prisoners' attack plan, and I really don't like what I see." He breathed a long sigh through his nose, "Good work, you two. Keep at it. See what you can get out of that recording and the sensory data. I'll be in the CIC if you get anything else."

Garrus nodded, "Will do, Shepard."

The rest of the long trip to Andros was completed in relative silence. Shepard knew what they were likely going to find. Most likely, there'd be nothing left but some burning building and a lot of bodies. The effect that kind of spectacle had on his crew was obvious. If nothing else, these killers were efficient at psychological warfare.

They dropped out of FTL flight near Andros and engaged the stealth systems. Joker tried to hail the colony, but got no response on any channel. Shepard, Ashley, Liara, and Garrus were all on the bridge when they found something that both intrigued and unnerved them.

Joker looked back from his chair, "Commander, I'm reading a Citadel homing signal a few hundred clicks ahead. Looks like a ship transponder."

Shepard leaned on the back of Joker's chair to see his screens, "Run the code through Citadel registries and see what turns up."

Joker nodded, "Way ahead of you, commander." He pressed several buttons and an info profile of a turian ship came up on screen.

Joker sat back and looked up at Shepard, "It's the code for the cruiser the Council sent ahead of us."

Shepard nodded, "Try to raise them on comm."

Joker nodded and worked his hands across the console, "This is the _Normandy_ to the _Warrior's Pride_. Do you copy?" Nothing but dead space came over the comm.

"I repeat, this is the _S.S.V. Normandy_ to Citadel cruiser _Warrior's Pride_. Are you receiving?" Again, only silence responded.

Shepard frowned, "Bring us in for a closer look." Joker complied with the order the order and several minutes passed before he spoke up again.

"Uh, commander? I think we found the _Warrior's Pride_."

Shepard looked out the side window and immediately understood what Joker's tone meant. Outside was a turian heavy cruiser, at least what was left of it. The once-proud turian vessel now drifted lifelessly through space. The hull was blackened and cratered, numerous breaches pock-marking the length of the ship. Pieces of the ship floated in the space around it and an entire wing spiraled lazily nearby. Shepard frowned. This was definitely not a good sign. Whoever this unknown assailant was, they had the firepower to shrug off a turian heavy cruiser without much effort.

The commander looked away from the grim spectacle, "Get us to the colony, Joker, ASAP."

If the crew was quiet before, the entire _Normandy_ was silent as a tomb now, and rightly so. Turian ships and crews were nothing to be trifled with, and these invaders had destroyed one without so much as flinching. It was easily cause for being a little more than apprehensive. When they reached the planet, there was still nothing on the comm, so Shepard tentatively gave the order to go atmospheric and scope out the colony from the air.

Joker looked back from the pilot seat, "Visual on Andros, commander."

Shepard looked out the side window as they began a wide circle around the destroyed colony. There was even less standing here than at Dracos. Most of the larger buildings had been completely demolished and the smaller ones were still burning. There were wreckages of several civilian rovers in a line outside the perimeter wall. Shepard frowned. An evacuation convoy that had been destroyed while fleeing the colony.

Shepard stood up straight and looked around the bridge, "Liara, Ash, you're with me. Joker, drop us in the Mako just inside the wall."

After suiting up and pulling off a successful Mako drop, the shore party found themselves looking at another grim scene. Just like Dracos, the bodies that were still recognizable were haphazardly strewn across the colony.

Shepard pointed to two different places, "Ashley, go check the barracks. Liara, take a look through that building over there. Check for survivors." Both acknowledged their orders and headed in their respective directions. Shepard walked to a nearby rover wreck and called up his omni-tool to scan it. He didn't have the same detailed scanning devices that Garrus had in his, but he wouldn't need it for what he was looking for. He ran the tool over the wreckage once and looked at the display, nodding to himself when he saw the results. The residual energy patterns matched the ones from Dracos, meaning it was the same mysterious attacker. He packaged the data and sent it to the _Normandy_. The more data they could catalogue on these killers, the better.

Shepard killed his omni-tool and looked around. He was about to go check out a burned out building when he noticed something on the ground. The dirt was turned up in a thin furrow about a quarter kilometer long. His curiosity piqued, Shepard began to follow the furrow. As he followed it, it grew deeper and wider. Shepard recognized these sorts of furrows in the dirt from crash sites he'd seen in the past. He finally found the end of the furrow and was more than a little surprised to find one of the invader's fighters buried up to its nose in the ground. Judging by how the cockpit cover was missing, the pilot probably ejected during the crash.

Shepard held one hand up to the side of his helmet, "Liara, Ash. I've found something. Looks like our boys shot down one of their ships. Rendezvous at my position." He closed his comm and climbed onto the wing of the fighter to get to the cockpit. He got up to the cockpit and knelt down to look in. The controls inside were unlike anything he'd seen before, but then nothing about these invaders was like anything he'd seen before, so that was only par for the course. The cockpit itself was fairly large, putting the aliens' size at a little bigger than your average turian. A control stick and throttle were easily identifiable, although if the contouring of the handles was any indication, these aliens had large hands with three fingers and two thumbs apiece. If these were any indications, these invaders were an unknown species.

As Shepard was looking over the cockpit, he noticed something on the canopy seal. It was liquid, glossy, thick, and black as night. He ran his finger through it and held it up so he could see it better, working it between his thumb and index finger. He waved it under his nose once, noting the sweet, metallic scent. It felt and smelled like blood. Unfortunately, his omni-tool didn't have the right devices to scan it to find out. As the unofficial team medic, Liara's tool might be able to learn something from it.

Speaking of the devil, Liara and Ashley arrived at the crash site at the same time. They both clambered over the vehicle's fuselage and looked into the cockpit that Shepard was examining.

The commander motioned his bloody fingers to Liara, "I found something in the cockpit. Looks like blood. What do you make of it?"

Liara looked inquisitively at the liquid on Shepard's fingers. When he pointed her to the source, she called up her omni-tool and ran a quick scan over it.

She nodded once, "I would need to make a more detailed scan on the _Normandy_, but it is definitely blood."

Shepard wiped his fingers off and held his hand to the side of his helmet, "Joker, bring the _Normandy_ around…"

He never had a chance to finish his sentence before it attacked. With a snarling war cry, the attacker leaped clear over from the other side of the fighter and tackled Shepard where he was kneeling, taking him to the ground and rolling several meters. When they stopped rolling, Shepard was on his back with a large, muscular hand around his neck, looking up into the same skull-like faceplate and glassy yellow eyes he'd seen in the recording. The attacker was straddling him, one hand at his throat, the other holding a long and wickedly curved blade. It leaned back and raised the blade for the killing blow when it was suddenly hit in the side and knocked off of Shepard. Ashley cocked her shotgun and fired another spread while Liara pulled her pistol.

Shepard greedily sucked air into his lungs as he stood and readied his rifle. He put his weapon to his shoulder and ran his eyes up and down his attacker quickly. It was a little taller and broader than your average turian, with thick shoulders and a deep chest. Its legs were large and muscular, with big thighs and sharply curving knees going back to high ankles, almost like a werewolf's legs. Its arms were big, with hands sporting three thick fingers and two thumbs each. The black mark on its side told Shepard where the blood on the fighter came from. The creature was dressed head to toe in a bone-white armor that covered its whole body, with small wings on the sides of the helmet and long points drawing backward from the elbows. Whatever it was, it didn't look like something you wanted to find following you in a dark alley.

Whatever it was, it was clearly hostile. Shepard squeezed the trigger and lit off a long burst of automatic fire while Ash and Liara both fired a shot from their respective weapons. The combined shotgun spread and pistol rounds collapsed any barriers it had while Shepard's rounds got through. The problem was they weren't hitting home. The creature bucked and staggered under the impacts of the bullets, losing its balance and falling to the ground, but it simply stood back up without a mark to show it. Its armor had taken every shot without breaking. It stood and pointed an accusing finger at them, shouting something in its own language before charging again, blade held high to strike. Shepard lit off another burst of gunfire. The bullets found their mark, but still didn't break through the armor as they just staggered and knocked the creature to the ground again. It stood up again and resumed its attack once more.

Shepard signaled back to the others, "Ashley, overkill! Liara, knock that thing down!" Shepard followed his own order as he set the overkill on his rifle and took aim again. A purple glow encompassed Liara's upper body as she reached her hand toward the creature, using a biotic throw to essentially punch it in the shoulder, staggering it very effectively. Ashley stowed her shotgun and deployed her assault rifle to open up an endless stream of rounds. Shepard joined his wife in firing at the creature, taking time to aim for standard armor weak points, places like the neck, shoulders, joints, and knees. The creature yelled and grunted as it staggered, bucked, and tripped under the hail of gunfire, trying to get close enough for a kill. Liara glowed as she reached toward it again, unleashing a warping effect at it. The warp struck and, in combination with the punishing gunfire, the armor finally reacted. The breastplate warped slightly, springing off a fastener and exposing some of the alien's body. Shepard aimed for the new weak spot, his gunfire rewarded with a burst of black blood from the creature's shoulder. In spite of having taken several rounds to the shoulder in addition to its side injury, it kept coming. Shepard pulled a grenade and set the HE charge for a short fuse before throwing it. The grenade snapped onto the alien's breastplate, where it started flashing and beeping. The alien looked down at the grenade just in time for it to explode. Shepard dove back away from the blast, rolling on his back and coming up in a crouch with rifle ready.

Everyone's jaws dropped when they saw it. As the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, they looked through the haze to see the alien slowly standing back up. It had been thrown several meters back from the explosion and several pieces of its armor were missing, but it was still kicking. It slowly picked itself up from the ground and shook off the daze.

Shepard shook his head, "This thing just won't die." He jabbed two fingers at it, "Open fire! Open fire!" Everyone opened up with full bursts on the stunned alien. It bucked and fell under the combined fire, the bullets finding their marks now that there was no armor to inhibit them. The alien took a high number of rounds and fell to the ground on its back.

Shepard kept it in his sights as he slowly approached it. Even after taking all those rounds, it still wasn't dead. It laid there on the ground, its breathing labored and its body bleeding badly. Shepard stood over it and it looked at him. A white membrane, presumably eyelids, slid up over its big yellow eyes for a moment before opening up again. But instead of attacking, something different happened. The alien raised its arm weakly and pointed at Shepard, then spoke a phrase in its own tongue. It then reached to where its knife was laying in the dirt and grabbed it as best it could. Shepard braced for another attack, but was surprised when it never came. Instead, the alien held the blade to its chest, then sunk it down. It stiffened with the pain, and then fell limp with its final breath.

Shepard lowered his rifle and waved everyone over. It wasn't until after his heart stopped pounding in his ears that he realized that Joker was still on the line.

"…_I repeat, _Normandy_ to shore party. Do you copy? Come on, commander, talk to me. _Normandy_ to shore party. Are you receiving?_"

Shepard nodded and held two fingers to his helmet, "We're here, Joker. We're all right."

Joker sounded very relieved over the comm, "_There you are. What happened down there, commander? You started to say something, then all I heard was screaming and gunfire._"

"We're all fine, Joker, but I need you to land at my position for evac." He looked down at the alien body, "We've got something here that we need to bring with us."

"_Roger that, commander. _Normandy_ going on station. ETA: four minutes. Be right on top of you in no time._"

Shepard nodded and closed his comm. He looked at Ash and Liara, "We need to get this body and armor back to the ship so we can take a closer look at it. Hopefully, it'll turn up some more answers."

"Commander," Liara spoke up, "This being is obviously a warrior of some kind. He killed himself ceremonially. Are you sure it would not be better to leave him here?"

Shepard looked at the body and thought for a moment before looking back at Liara, "Taking the body with us can serve a twofold purpose. First, we can study his basic physical makeup and armor design. Second, if we find more of these guys, we can offer to return the body for ceremonial burial as a sign of good faith, hopefully the first step of avoiding a war."

Liara nodded, "I see your point, commander."

Ashley nudged the body with her foot, her hand never straying far from her pistol, "Are you sure we shouldn't make sure he's dead, just to be safe?"

The human Spectre shook his head, "We need the body as intact as possible, Ash. And besides, with all the ammo we filled him with, I don't think he'll be getting up any time soon."

Ashley nodded, "All the same, I think I'll keep my rifle under the bunk tonight."

The _Normandy_ arrived at the site and the crew spent the next hour loading the body onto the ship and picking apart the fighter for unusual technology. Garrus was eagerly employed studying the alien's armor while Dr. Chakwas had her hands full cleaning up and looking over the body. That being more than just a minorly harrowing experience, Shepard wound up with a ring of bruises on his neck from nearly being one-hand strangled, but no other injuries to speak of. He rubbed his aching neck as he looked over the crew in the CIC and allowed himself a satisfied nod. They had something definitive now, not just damaged recordings and cut off reports. They could study the biology and armor design of these unknown assailants. They were finally getting somewhere. He pressed several buttons on the handrail to send the mission report back to the Citadel. Now all they could do was wait, but at least they knew what they were waiting for now.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Shepard walked through the door to the med bay and looked toward the last gurney, where he found Dr. Chakwas still looking the alien body over. He walked over and gave it a glance for himself. The alien didn't look as big without its armor on, but it was about the size of a large turian, except far more muscular. The alien's skin was a beige color, a bit of a contrast to the white armor and grey jumpsuit he wore, and was composed of large, overlapping scales. A small tool table next to the bed held all of the rounds and shrapnel that had been lodged in the body, lying in a pool of black blood.

The commander nodded to the alien, "What's the damage, doc?"

Dr. Chakwas continued working without looking at him, "He's a fascinating specimen, indeed. There are numerous things this old boy has going for him." She set her tools down and took off her gloves, "Where should I start?"

Shepard leaned back against the gurney behind, "How about basic physiology?"

The doctor shrugged, "Well, to start with, he's a reptilian-base life form, similar to turians. He's cold blooded, but not in the way we think of it. From what I can tell, his vital organs fully metabolize at low body temperatures, but I'd need a living sample to prove that. I'd guess that his average body temperature is somewhere in the low twenties Celsius." She motioned to the arms, "His muscle structure is remarkable. The muscle tissue is almost fifty percent denser than most species'. And I could write a short book on the motor nerves. He's designed for extremely quick reflexes."

Shepard arched an eyebrow, "How quick are we talking?"

Dr. Chakwas responded by holding up the alien's hand and poking a point further down on the forearm. When she touched the muscle, the clawed fingers snapped together into a fist almost too fast to be seen.

"Interesting." Shepard's eyes widened appreciatively and he nodded, "What about the hands? Does he actually have two thumbs?"

The doctor motioned to the hand as she spoke, "Yes, he does, but they're not fully opposable. His upper thumb can't reach his third finger down, while contrarily his lower thumb can't reach the first finger. On the other hand, pardon the pun, both thumbs are opposable to each other. This would give him limited, but more than ample dexterity in his hands. The fingers and toes have retractable claws, meaning he's never truly unarmed."

Shepard nodded again, "Now when we were trying to kill him, we hit him with everything we had and he just shrugged it off. Is that some physical thing of his?"

Dr. Chakwas shook her head, "I would attribute that to his armor. His vital organs are actually quite fragile, probably why his hide is so thick. I can't tell you if he's a quick healer, not without a living sample. His skin is almost two centimeters thick and quite strong, almost weave-like, with overlapping scales. The tough skin is almost like a natural armor, again probably to protect the sensitive organs beneath. Like a piece of candy, 'crunchy on the outside; soft in the middle'."

The commander raised his eyebrows, "Interesting analogy." He stood up and walked up toward the alien's head, "Sensory organs?"

Dr. Chakwas followed him and motioned to parts of the head as she spoke, "His eyes are quite large compared to the size of his skull, and apparently sensitive to a greater range of light than humans. Once again, I wish he was still alive so I could find out what ranges he could see. His ears are a pair of recessed tympanums along the temples of the skull, although they don't seem to be developed for audio sensing like most beings' are. That may have something to do with this." She pointed to the alien's jaw line. Shepard looked more closely to find that it appeared the alien had no mouth.

The doctor continued, "Before you jump to conclusions, his mouth is under a weave of large scales on the front of his chin. Lots of jagged teeth in there; I'd guess he's a carnivore. I ran some x-rays over his head area and found an unusual organ in the neck. I scanned it more thoroughly and found that it was some kind of sonic projection organ."

Shepard cocked his head slightly, "So he projects his voice directly from his throat?"

She nodded, "Yes, but there's more to it. The voice box has a potent electrical generating organ. From what I can tell, his kind speaks through some form of electro-sonic projection. There's a series of bones and muscles around the voice box that appear to shape the sound, much the same way the tongue and lips shape sound for human speech."

Shepard nodded slowly, "I suppose that makes sense. He yelled several things at us when he attacked, and when he was speaking, I thought I could hear his voice in my head as well as my ears. It felt like a faint buzzing across my skull."

Dr. Chakwas nodded, "Probably his electro-sonic vibrations interacting with your nervous system."

The Spectre leaned back against the other gurney again, "Speaking of nervous systems, what about his?"

The doctor shrugged, "Fairly normal, except it carries a more potent charge than most species. I got a good zap a few times when pulling the bullets out. I'd guess that the electrical vocal projections are meant to interact with the nervous system directly. Sort of like elcor communication. This old boy and others of his kind probably communicate in ways that we can't hear."

Shepard nodded as he processed all the new information about the alien, "One last question. What do you know about his blood?"

Dr. Chakwas held up a vial of blood she'd taken from the body, "The black color comes from a high concentration of iron. It's thick to promote fast clotting in the event of an injury. I would imagine that the blood clots fast to prevent damage or infection to the sensitive vital organs. Other than that, I need to study it further."

Shepard looked the body over once before looking at Dr. Chakwas, "Keep looking him over. Let me know if you come across anything interesting." He turned and left the med bay, heading to the lift down to the hold. Garrus and Liara had set up a couple of tables to study the armor and technology taken from the fighter on Andros. Shepard stepped off the lift and turned left to go see how things were progressing. He walked up next to Garrus, who was running his omni-tool over a piece of armor while consulting a console on the table. The turian acknowledged him with a curt nod before continuing what he was doing.

Shepard set his hands on the table, "You get anything yet?"

Garrus shut off his tool and pressed several buttons on the console, "Well, it's hard to say. Getting either a metallurgist or chemist to look at this would be better. I'm neither."

The commander simply nodded, "Venture an amateur opinion."

Garrus turned the console so Shepard could see what he had, "The armor is a molecularly-fused alloy, consisting of iron, titanium, and at least two other metals that I can't identify. It's a sturdy, if not somewhat heavy, composition."

Shepard furrowed his brow, "What do you mean 'molecularly-fused'?"

"As best I can tell, the intermolecular bonds of the metals have been artificially reinforced. The mass and density are the same, but it's stronger. I would guess that was why you couldn't break his armor with normal weapon fire. If I had to guess, I'd say it was done with some kind of mass effect technology, although how, I couldn't tell you."

"Were there any advanced systems in the armor?"

The turian shook his head, "Nothing out of the ordinary, shy of a holographic heads-up display, powered ventilation system, and kinetic barrier projectors. All in all, fairly simple in design."

The human Spectre nodded again and stood up straight, "Figure out what you can about it, but don't strain yourself." He turned and walked around Garrus to where Liara was working on one of the fighter's guns. It was hooked up to all kinds of wires that led every which direction, most of them culminating at the console Liara was intently studying.

Shepard walked up and leaned on the table, "So are you getting anywhere with it?"

The asari scientist nodded, "Yes, but very slowly. From what I can tell in comparing the scans to Dr. Kaissen's notes, there is a dark energy source in this weapon. I am not certain how, and the notes say nothing about sources of dark energy, but somehow this weapon emits concentrated bursts of dark radiation. I will continue to work on it, but we may need to contact Dr. Kaissen at Ilos to come up with anything definitive."

Shepard nodded and glanced over at Garrus' table, "What about the armor? You said it had a Prothean look to it. Is it what you thought?"

Liara turned her chair to face him, "The armor simply looks Prothean. Beyond the esthetics, there is nothing Prothean about it, nor its wearer. I have never seen a being like him before, but I do know that his physiology does not match any Prothean appearance I've seen."

The commander shrugged, "That was fifty millennia ago. If he is Prothean, then this physiology may be what they evolved into over the centuries."

Liara shook her head adamantly, "I have to disagree, commander. Vigil constructed numerous models of what an evolved Prothean would look like if they still existed. The alien upstairs in the med lab matches none of those models."

Shepard held up his hands defensively, "Sorry. I'm just throwing out options."

"No, commander. I did not mean to put you on the defensive. I am just somewhat stressed about this whole situation. Perhaps I will study this weapon for a little while longer, then go lie down for a while."

He nodded, "Sounds like a plan." He stood and moved to the last table. This table had nothing to do with the alien or his technology. Ashley stood at her console, cataloguing modifications and repairs made to all the weapons and placing orders for new parts and ammo. Shepard stepped up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.

Ashley smiled as she continued working, "I'm on duty, dear."

"I know. So am I." Shepard smirked at her, "You just looked like you needed a break."

Ashley stopped typing and leaned her head back on her husband's shoulder, "What is it with us and discovering new/ancient races? First it was the Reapers, and now Mr. Lizard up in the med bay."

Shepard shrugged, "It's probably got something to do with that aura about me. You know, the one that makes people think I enjoy having bullets flying by my head."

Ashley turned her head to kiss Shepard's cheek, "That's what makes you so much fun, Gabe."

The commander snickered, "Ash, you have one screwed-up definition of 'fun'." He turned his head to return a kiss to her cheek, "I'll see you tonight."

Ashley smiled brightly as she slipped out of Shepard's embrace, "Looking forward to it, skipper."

Shepard turned to leave the hold on the way to the captain's quarters. Now he had to face the unenviable task of mashing all this new information into something useful and attaching it to a report to the Council, a task he looked forward to with the same enthusiasm as being strung up by his toes and used as a piñata. Rather than put off the inevitable, Shepard turned out of the lift and headed to his quarters to commence the agony.

------------

Shepard's eyes popped open and he lifted his head to look around the darkened room. Ashley lay sleeping soundly next to him, her hushed breathing the only sound breaking the silence. There was nothing else in the room and it was quiet as the vacuum of space. What could have woken him up? Shepard furrowed his brow curiously and laid his head back on his pillow to sleep. Barely a moment later, his head came off the pillow and he looked around again. Something woke him up, he could feel it. He waited for a moment, listening for it. There; an ever so slight buzzing at the back of his skull. It was a similar feeling to what he felt when he used the Prothean beacons a year ago. What would be giving him that feeling now?

Shepard slowly slid out of bed, careful not to disturb Ashley, and slipped his uniform on. He stepped out of his quarters into the mess area and looked around. There wasn't an actual "day" or "night" in space, but the light systems and duty shifts on the _Normandy_ cycled around a standard twenty-four hour solar day, so the crew wouldn't get jetlag every day of their tour. There was nothing in the mess, but the buzz was still there, only a little louder. He walked to the stairs up to the CIC, the buzz growing as he came closer to the lift, but fading when he ascended the first few steps. Shepard turned around and frowned. After making a quick visit in the med bay to make sure the dead alien wasn't the source, he determined that whatever was causing this buzz in his head was down in the hold. He cautiously stepped into the lift and hit the button, wishing he had a weapon on him to help calm his nerves.

The lift door opened into the hold and Shepard stepped out, the buzz growing as he moved. He looked around the dark hold and was about to step back into the lift when something on one of the tables caught his eye. One of the pieces of alien armor was flashing from inside. Shepard furrowed his brow again. None of the armor was flashing when they took it off the alien, so why was it doing it now? He cautiously walked toward the table, uncertain of what was going on. He came to the table and found that there was a pulsing glow coming from inside the helmet. Also, the buzzing in his head was loud enough to be uncomfortable, pinning this as the source. Shepard picked up the helmet and looked inside. There was a pair of emitter devices inside that were pulsing. With each pulse, the buzzing in his head pulsed with them. Shepard cocked an eyebrow, and then, on a wild-eyed hunch, turned the helmet around forward and carefully lowered it onto his head.

His head touched the emitters and things started happening. Shepard's eyes widened as his mind was filled with an array of images, some of them unclear, but most recognizable. He saw ships, a fleet of thousands, ships of various kinds all moving in formation. The image faded into black and white graph image showing a top-down view of the fleet and surrounding area. A voice started to speak, but Shepard couldn't understand what it was saying, although he did recognize it as the unknown alien's language. Red lines moved in toward the fleet of ships, pointing out places where the formation was weak or thin. The fleet image moved aside and a list of alien runes scrolled down the other side, completely unreadable. Then a large red rune started flashing in the middle of the image before everything faded to black.

Shepard ripped the helmet off and just stared at it for several long moments. It took the tickle of a drop of water running down his neck for him to realize he was sweating. He looked at his watch. Nearly ten minutes had passed, but he'd just put the helmet on a few seconds ago.

Shepard looked at the helmet and his eyes widened in awe, "Son of a gun! They use Prothean beacon technology to send transmissions to their troops." He carefully set the helmet down and rubbed the side of his head. On the note of transmissions, what was the transmission he'd just received?

"_Commander, are you awake? It's Pressley. You're needed in CIC. We're getting a distress call_."

Shepard nodded and took a moment to answer, "I'll be right there." Shepard took a deep breath to collect himself and hurried into the lift to get to the CIC.

He arrived and immediately headed to the command platform, "Talk to me, Pressley."

Pressley was feverishly working on several consoles at once, "Distress call received at 0213 hours on quarian used channels. Transmission source is local, about 500k clicks bearing two seven two."

Shepard nodded as he listened, but something caught his attention, "Wait a minute. Quarian?"

Pressley nodded, "Yes, sir, a channel used primarily by the quarian fleet."

The commander cocked an eyebrow, "I didn't know the Migrant Fleet was due to pass through this cluster. Put it through on speakers."

Pressley's eyes darted to the ceiling for a moment as he thought and he pressed several buttons, "If memory serves, their passing through right now. Probably half way between relays. On speakers now."

"…_I repeat, this is Admiral Tarin'Zorrah vas Rayya on the _Reyquin_, quarian flotilla. We are under attack by unknown raiders. All ships within range, please respond. I say again, the Migrant Fleet is under attack. There are women and children aboard these vessels. We require immediate assistance. All vessels within range, please…_" The transmission faded to white noise.

Pressley looked at his consoles, "Transmission lost. Terminated at source." He looked at the commander, "Orders, sir?"

Shepard just stared forward, slack-jawed. Now it made sense. The fleet of thousands he saw, the red lines, they were battle plans to attack the Migrant Fleet. The aliens were transmitting attack orders!

His eyes snapped to the ceiling, "Joker, are you awake?"

"_Do you think I ever sleep, commander?_"

"I wonder about that sometimes." Shepard rolled his eyes, "Plot us a course to the source of that transmission and get us there as fast as you can." He looked at Pressley, "Get on the horn to any Alliance and Citadel ships within range. Call them to those coordinates and have them prepare for a fight. Make sure to mention it's a Spectre order. That'll bring them running." He pointed at another crewman, "Sound battle stations. Wake all personnel and bring weapons online." Shepard put his hands on the rail and looked at the galactic map, "We've got to help in whatever way we can. Let's just hope we're not too late to stop a mass genocide."


	5. Chapter 5

5

Shepard waited impatiently as the _Normandy_ sped through the stars at the fastest FTL speeds she could muster. The situation was extremely bad. The Quarian Flotilla consisted of over fifty thousand ships, only a handful of which were combat capable, and even fewer actually combat _worthy_. In spite of the concept of safety in numbers, the Migrant Fleet was hardly safe. A fleet that large of mostly unarmed ships was extremely vulnerable. It was only to the quarians' fortune that they never came under any serious attack until now.

The intercom on the handrail beeped, "_Dropping out of FTL now, commander._" Shepard simply nodded as he pressed several buttons that changed the holographic image from a galactic map to a view of their surroundings. He panned the view around, looking for something, anything that looked like one of the alien craft. He scanned the surrounding area until he noticed some movement against the dark of space, what looked like the slow drift of a ship. What struck him as odd was that the ship was alone. There was no sign of the Migrant Fleet.

Shepard hit the intercom, "Joker, pick up my visual feed. Get us over to that ship, on the double."

"_Roger that, sir. I've already confirmed her ID. It's the _Reyquin_._"

The commander cursed under his breath. The _Reyquin_ was the ship they'd gotten the initial distress call from. The way her burned and blasted hulk was carelessly careening through space now didn't leave much room for hope.

Shepard looked at Garrus, "Scan the area. Look for survivors."

The turian went about the order for a moment before looking back up at Shepard, "Commander, I've got a faint distress beacon coming from the ship's debris field. It looks like it's coming from a shuttle." He pressed several other buttons and consulted his monitors, "Yes, I've confirmed it. I'm reading a number of quarian life signs in several disabled shuttles near the ship. If I didn't know better, I'd say the shuttles were rebuilt into large capacity escape pods."

The Spectre waved away the comment, "Are they small enough to fit in the hold?"

Garrus nodded, "We'd have to pick up and unload them one at a time, but yes, we could fit one into the hold."

Shepard hit the intercom, "Joker, dock us with the nearest escape pod. Feeding coordinates now." It only took the better part of half an hour to dock and unload each pod of the quarians it contained. Shepard made his way down to the hold to see how the ship capacity was holding up. The _Normandy_ was never meant for search and rescue. He stepped off the lift to be awarded with a peculiar sight. He'd gotten used to how Tali looked while she'd been with them during the hunt for Saren, with her evo-suit and all. But in spite of that, coming down into a hold full of over a hundred evo-suited quarians was enough to put a brief pause in Shepard's step. He stopped and looked across the group. A number of faceless survivors, their identities concealed by their suit's visors, mostly tending wounded. One particular quarian noticed Shepard and stepped between two of his people to get to him. Shepard noticed this quarian also, not only that he was fairly strapping as far as quarians go, but that he wore a silver sash around his shoulders and across his chest with a number of circular medallions on it. Once again, Shepard had to get used to a new appearance, considering he had only previously seen a female quarian. He shared the same two-fingered hands and split-toed feet that he'd grown to recognize on Tali, as well as the same backward bowed shins, but seeing these features on a sturdy male body took him by surprise.

The quarian walked up to Shepard and gave him a military bow, "Com. Shepard, I am Admiral Tarin'Zorrah vas Rayya, Third Fleet, Quarian Flotilla. You have my most sincere gratitude for your rescue of the _Reyquin's_ survivors."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow when he heard the quarian admiral's name. Through the faceplate, he recognized the same silvery white eyes that Tali had.

Shepard cocked his head forward, "Zorrah? You wouldn't happen to be…"

He nodded, "Yes, Tali'Zorrah is my daughter. She spoke very highly of you and your crew, and most especially of your ship, when she returned to the Flotilla." Tarin looked around the hold, "A most interesting vessel you have here."

Shepard nodded, "I'd give you a tour if we had time, but we don't. I need to know what happened here."

Tarin fell into step with Shepard as they headed to the lift and back to the CIC, "I was conducting an inspection of the _Reyquin_ when they struck. I'd had the ship separate from the rest of the Flotilla so I could make sure all systems were functioning without collateral damage if something broke down. We were in the middle of an engine run-up when they hit. A massive wing of fighters attacked first. They strafed us up and down the length of the ship, hitting vital systems as they went. Then a pair of frigate vessels came in for the kill. Their attack had us disarmed and immobilized before we could even react." Tarin leaned forward on a handrail as Shepard took the command platform in the CIC, "Commander, they were only a small part of a larger fleet. They were headed for the Flotilla. My people are in danger. There are women and children on those vessels. I don't imagine a vessel of this size is heavily armed, but is there anything you can do to help?"

Shepard was about to respond when Joker came over the speakers, "_Commander, we've got a response to your call out. The Alliance is sending one of the Armstrong battle groups, and two turian cruisers have responded. Reinforcements arriving in twelve minutes._"

Shepard nodded, "We're not heavily armed, but our friends are. We'll do what we can, admiral."

Tarin nodded slowly, "Thank you, commander. I'll give you the coordinates to the Fleet's location." He called up an omni-tool and punched some buttons quickly.

Shepard hit the intercom, "Joker, get us on route to the incoming coordinates and relay them to the reinforcements." It was a short sub-light flight to get to the Migrant Fleet's position. It was a mess when the _Normandy_ arrived on site. The few combat capable ships the flotilla had were formed up in a defensive line, screening the unarmed ships as they tried to flee. The alien ships were formed up in an assault wall formation and exchanging fire with the quarian defense line. In spite of the second-hand nature of many of their weapons, the quarians were holding their ground. When the enemy ships tried to maneuver around them, the quarian line simply adjusted their position to block, always clear of most of the fire, but still inflicting a lot of damage to the enemy. But in spite of the effectiveness of the screen, the fleeing civilian ships were still being harassed by numerous fighters and one or two frigates that squeezed by.

Shepard's eyes glanced across the battlefield display in front of him. He was infantry, not fleet, but he had learned a few things during his time under Capt. Anderson's command. He knew basic tactics and maneuvers, but he left the advanced stuff to the admirals. Right now, they had a distinct advantage. The enemy didn't know they were there, allowing them the leisure of planning their first strike.

He pressed a couple of buttons to highlight one of the larger ships, "Joker, you remember that maneuver you pulled at the Battle of the Citadel?"

"_The High Dive Bomb Drop? I invented it. How could I forget it?_" Shepard pressed a button that sent an attack order up to Joker's console and there was a brief silence over the intercom, "_Understood, commander. All hands, prepare for evasive maneuvers._" Shepard felt the deck rumble as the engines geared up to accelerate rapidly and he saw the view of the battlefield on the hologram move downward as Joker brought the _Normandy_ up and over the targeted ship. He brought them over it and flew up for several kilometers.

"_Hold on, everyone._" Joker reversed the ship's direction. He killed the thrust and cranked the ship around one hundred eighty degrees before firewalling the throttle again. Shepard held the rail in a death grip as he felt the ship speeding up. They were nose diving straight toward the large enemy ship, a direct collision course. At the last moment, Shepard saw a disruptor torpedo fire off before they began a high-G climb to avoid crashing. They slashed by the ship, coming within meters of brushing the hull on the way by. Shepard set the view for aft cameras so he could see the damage they did.

The torpedo slammed hard into the ship, although the molecularly enhanced hull didn't allow the weapon to punch through. It did enough damage, all the same. The torpedo struck with enough force to literally bend the ship in half slightly, detonating on impact and unleashing a rapidly fluctuating mass effect field similar to a biotic's warp ability. The purple shockwave splashed over the enemy ship's hull, causing it to ripple and deform, tearing a large hole at the epicenter of the blast. The enemy ship's engines flickered and died as they began to slowly drift from the torpedo's impact. Shepard smiled. One ship almost incapacitated with the first hit. Not bad for improvising.

It didn't take long for the other ships to notice the puny little frigate that nearly killed a heavy cruiser. A number of smaller ships broke from the enemy formation and began to pursue. Two frigates, in particular, were posing a big problem because they could match speed with the _Normandy_. They pulled in behind and began peppering their stern KBs with blue-white laser fire.

Shepard braced against the handrail as the ship shuddered under an impact and he hit the intercom, "Joker, can you shake these guys?"

"_Please. Don't insult me, commander. Give me a minute and hold on._" The _Normandy_ pulled back around toward the enemy fleet and flew into the formation, the enemy frigates in hot pursuit. Joker wove an evasive pattern through the enemy ships, skimming a little closer to some of them then Shepard liked. The frigates continued to follow, although they sometimes had to slow down and take the safer path. Joker pulled the _Normandy_ past an enemy cruiser, dove and rolled around and beneath it to loop around the larger vessel. The frigates tried to follow, diving down and around the cruiser and following the _Normandy_ in its climb. What they weren't anticipating was the formation's internal movements. Joker quickly ducked past an enemy destroyer's bow as it moved to a new position in the formation. The frigates followed, not compensating for the destroyer's movement. One frigate slammed face-first into the destroyer's bow, completely destroying the ship and mangling the destroyer's hull.

Joker came over the speakers, "_How much do you trust me, commander?_"

Shepard shrugged, "You haven't killed us so far, so I'd say I trust you."

"_Good enough for me._" Joker looped the ship around, reversing their course and heading straight at the pursuing frigate at full speed.

Shepard cocked an eyebrow as he watched the frigate close frighteningly fast, "Joker?"

"_You said you trust me, commander._" The trust turned out to be well placed when Joker's little game of chicken paid off. At the last moment, the enemy frigate veered from their course, flashing by the _Normandy_ with no more than a few meters' clearance and piling into an enemy cruiser. Shepard smiled and wiped his brow, making a mental note to allow Joker to pull off any harebrained plan he thought of in the future.

Pressley spoke up from his console, "Kinetic barriers at thirty five percent. Can we get out from among the enemy ships now?"

The commander looked at his displays and saw a group of Alliance transponders a short distance away and closing fast, "Joker, meet us up with the Armstrong battle group."

Before the order could be carried out, a transmission came over speakers with a familiar female voice, "_…Mayday! Mayday! This is the _Conrayk_. The captain has been killed and I have assumed command. We are under heavy attack. Engines are not responding. Life support is failing. System failures all over the ship. We need immediate assistance. I repeat, we need immediate assistance._"

"Tali'Zorrah…" Adm. Tarin tensed and looked at Shepard, "Commander, the _Conrayk_ is Tali'Zorrah's ship. Is there anything you can do to help her?" He walked up next to him, "I'm asking you as a father, not an officer: please, save my daughter."

A desperate father's pleas only served to reinforce Shepard's decision. He didn't need Admiral Tarin's request to move him to action. Tali was a friend, and that was enough for him.

Shepard hit the intercom, "Joker, belay my previous order and get us to the _Conrayk_'s position, on the double." Joker weaved through the maze of enemy ships until they came out of the formation. He took the direct route to the _Conrayk_ through the quarian defense line. The _Normandy_ ducked around a quarian cruiser and made best speed for the _Conrayk_.

As they closed the distance, Shepard only now realized the sheer size of the Migrant Fleet, and how much he'd underestimated the quarian military forces. The line of ships extended on for several hundred kilometers. Ships of all shapes and sizes, from personal shuttles to massive dreadnoughts and everything in between were part of the quarian flotilla. The fighting ships he'd seen on the defense line were only the ones that could respond immediately. There were a number of other ships moving from the fleet to reinforce the line. All in all, it was quite the sight to behold for one who'd never seen it before.

The _Conrayk_ came into view on his holographic display and Shepard could see just how bad things were. The ship was a wreck. Fighters were swarming all around up and down her length and a frigate was circling like a shark, peppering the already damaged hull with weapon fire. The _Conrayk_'s engines gave a brief flicker of life as they tried to muster the strength to move the wounded vessel to no avail.

Shepard furrowed his brow and pressed several buttons on his displays, "Pressley, contact the Armstrong group and request two ships to assist us. Joker, I want a full spread of torpedoes on that frigate. Arm the guns and hit them hard."

"_Music to my ears, commander. Hold on to your hats._" Shepard felt the floor rumble again as the _Normandy_ accelerated to attack. They angled in on the frigate and Joker lit off a spread of three disruptor torpedoes. Joker was no scientist, but neither was he anybody's fool. He knew full well that their projectiles inherited the _Normandy_'s inertia when they launched. That was the whole concept behind the High Dive Bomb Drop. He would get the ship moving as fast as possible before releasing the torpedo at the last moment, slamming it into the target at critical velocity.

In this case, the three torpedoes they'd launched had picked up a good chunk of the _Normandy_'s speed. They smashed into the frigate one at a time, the first one bashing through the KBs like they weren't even there. The three weapons landed at various points up the length of the ship, creating a havoc of damage. The damaged frigate ceased its attack on the quarian vessel and turned its attention on the _Normandy_.

Shepard felt a number of quick rumbles through the hull as the mass accelerators fired off a spread of rounds. Since the _Normandy_ was too small to carry the high powered mass accelerators that cruisers and dreadnoughts had, she made up for her lack of punch by packing brass knuckles. The rounds the ship's mass accelerators fired were known as Stinger HEAT rounds. The outside of the round was a hardened piercing warhead that would punch into the target's armor, while the inside was loaded with an HE payload designed to explode on impact. In fewer words, the _Normandy_'s two puny little mass accelerators packed almost as much punch as a ship twice her size. The rounds smashed into the alien ship's hull, blossoming into explosions of fire and shockwave. The frigate's engines and lights flickered briefly before they lost power and began to drift.

Two Alliance frigates showed up on scene and began chasing the fighters, their GARDIAN lasers playing havoc with the smaller spacecraft. Shepard turned his holographic view around to see the rest of the fight. The Alliance battle group and turian cruisers had joined the fight, putting the alien ships in a pincer that they were rapidly retreating out of. Shepard took this time to get a good look at the enemy ships. They were all the same basic design, a long and rounded hull, coming to a point at the bow and stern. The engines were placed at the base of stubby winglets that carried some of the weapons, and every ship was the same bleached bone white color that these aliens were so fond of. To sum up, the alien fleet looked like a flotilla of sharp teeth of varying sizes. The fighters were the same, with a long and pointed white fuselage, only they had wide, crooked wings that curved backward sharply. Shepard turned his view back forward to the frigate they'd disabled and smiled. Now they had prisoners they could question and technology they could examine.

Shepard's smile vanished when he saw what happened next. The lights and engines on the frigate flared bright white before the ship exploded from the inside in a blossom of blue flame. When the bloom of fire faded, there was nothing left bigger than a hubcap.

Garrus' head jerked back in a surprised motion and he looked at Shepard, "What was that all about?"

The commander shrugged, "We may have hit something vital."

Adm. Tarin's shoulders bobbed up and down in a deep sigh, "At least the Flotilla is saved. Can you establish communications with the _Conrayk_, commander?"

Shepard nodded, "Way ahead of you, admiral." He looked at Garrus, who simply looked back and nodded, "_Conrayk_, this is Com. Shepard of the _Normandy_. What is your situation?"

There was static on the line for a moment before someone answered, "Normandy_, this is the _Conrayk_. Thanks for the save, commander. I don't know how much longer we could have held out if you hadn't shown up._"

He nodded, "It was a pleasure to help. We'll be docking with your ship momentarily. We have a number of refugees we need to drop off with you. Hold tight."

Within minutes, the _Normandy_ had docked with the _Conrayk_ and had begun offloading the refugees. Shepard remained in the hold accompanied by Adm. Tarin to make sure the unloading process went smoothly. As the crew of the _Reyquin_ filed out of the hold, one quarian weaved her way through the crowd to find Shepard and Tarin. She was wearing a red and black quarian-design Colossus VII armor system and packing a collapsed shotgun on her back. Unlike the last time Shepard saw her, this time Tali had a sash around her shoulders to mark that she was an officer.

Tarin walked toward her and held his arms out, "Tali'Zorrah!" He gathered his daughter up in his arms and held her for a moment before letting her go.

He pulled back and looked at her, "Are you alright?"

Tali nodded, "Yes, papa. I'm fine. But…"

The quarian admiral cocked his head forward, "But what?"

Shepard could see through Tali's visor as she closed her eyes and broke down crying, "Father…Garak is dead." Without another word, Tarin held Tali close and she buried her faceplate against his neck, sobbing uncontrollably.

Shepard bowed his head and closed his eyes. Garak'Kollan vas Conrayk was the name of the young man Tali had been steadily dating for the last year. Tali was a tough girl, but having lost her love in the raid must have been hard on her.

Tali regained control of herself and gently pulled away from her father. He held her shoulders and leaned his head forward to look at her, "Will you be okay?"

She sniffled lightly as she shrugged and hung her head, "Time heals all wounds, at least so they say." Tali looked up and past her father's shoulder at Shepard, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Shepard." She freed herself of her father's grasp and approached him, "I know you're here investigating these aliens, and the recent attacks on outlying colonies. I want to help you find them." The sorrow in her eyes was replaced with pure anger, "I want to make these beasts pay for taking Garak from me."

Tarin stepped up beside her and looked at her, "No! I forbid you to go, Tali. You have duties here, in the Fleet. You must do your part for the good of the whole."

Tali just turned her head to look at him, "Father, you know full well that the Fleet isn't going anywhere until we get the damaged ships up and running again. It's going to be a long time before the _Conrayk_ is ready to do anything except drift."

The admiral shook his head and motioned an arm back toward the ship, "All the more reason we need you here, Tali. You are the ship's commanding officer now. You need to be here to oversee the repairs."

She shook her head, "The machinists always see to the repairs without the captain's oversight, father." She turned to face him, "Father, the crew knew about me and Garak. They knew how close we were. They offered to take on my duties so I could have some time for myself, to deal with the grief. The best way I can deal with my grief is by helping make sure these monsters can never break apart another happy life again."

Tarin hung his head for a moment before putting his hand on Tali's shoulder and looking at her, "I already lost your mother. I nearly lost you to the geth. I don't want to lose you, Tali."

Tali took her father's hand from her shoulder and held it in her own, "You won't, father. I promise."

Adm. Tarin slowly nodded as he looked at his daughter, "Just like your mother." He breathed a deep sigh, a thinly metallic sound through the suit's breathers, "Alright. You've made your Pilgrimage; you're a grown woman now. There's nothing I can do to stop you."

Tali nodded and hugged her father briefly, "Thank you for understanding, papa." She turned again to Shepard, who'd been watching this father/daughter spectacle unfold, "So, Shepard, all I have to offer is my skills and a desire for vengeance. Will you have me in your team again?"

Shepard thought for a moment. He knew what Tali could do. Her technological prowess had proven invaluable during the hunt for Saren. That, and she really knew how to sling a shotgun. The only thing that concerned him was her motivation. Revenge often clouded the minds of those who sought it, making them irrational at times when they needed their wits about them. After thinking about it for a second, Shepard realized that Tali would probably go to seek revenge for Garak's death one way or another. As part of the team again, she would at least have some support so she wouldn't get herself killed.

He nodded, "Ash and Liara will be happy to see you again. Welcome back, Tali."

Tali nodded to him in return, "Thank you, Shepard. If you'll excuse me, I have to collect some things from my ship before we go." She turned and headed back out of the hold to her ship.

Tarin starred after her as she walked away, "I was never there for her." He sighed and hung his head, "I was never there while she was growing up and I wasn't there for her now, when she needed me." He looked at Shepard, "Pray to your ancestors that you never become a father, Shepard. Sometimes…the burden is too great to bear."

The commander took a step forward and put his hand on the quarian's shoulder, "Anyone can see that you love your daughter, admiral. You have some catching up to do, yes, but people can see that you're sincere about caring for her. That's what counts in the end."

Tarin nodded slowly, "I suppose you're right. Thank you, Shepard. It feels good to hear someone say that." His omni-tool beeped and he looked at the display.

He shut off the tool and looked at Shepard, "I have some things I must see to. I humbly thank you for your assistance, commander. Most would simply have left us to deal with our own problems. I thank you." With a quick handshake, the two officers parted company. Once the last of the quarians had left the ship and Tali had moved her things onto the _Normandy_, they disengaged from the _Conrayk_.

Tali's reunion with Ashley and Liara was a bittersweet moment. They were both overjoyed to have her back, but they both knew the heavy heart she carried of her lost love. Shepard looked out the bridge window as the quarian flotilla quickly shrank into the distance. They'd regained an old friend and ally at a great cost, and they new more about these mysterious aliens. They knew that they were not above attacking a poorly armed fleet of civilian vessels to get an edge in the fight. Shepard slowly shook his head as he contemplated what that could lead to. Hostage situations, genocides, double-crosses, the list went on. He'd already seen that they took no prisoners, and this only made the situation more serious. Shepard shook his head at this new information as he turned to leave the bridge to head to the comm room and file his report with the Council.


	6. Chapter 6

6

Shepard sat at his desk in his quarters, pouring over a list of status reports on his screen. Most of them were just more of the same thing: nothing. That was what summarized the last two days of the investigation. After the attack on the quarian flotilla, it seemed that these mysterious aliens had simply vanished. There had been sightings of ships matching their description near some outlying colonies and a few reports of scout ships further in, even approaching Citadel space, but there had been no large scale activities for a while. No attacks, no fleet movements, nothing. Shepard closed the most recent report and leaned his elbows on his desk, rubbing his now aching forehead with his fingers.

He suppressed a startled jump when he felt Ashley's hands start rubbing his neck and shoulders, "You're tired, Gabe. You need to rest for a while."

Shepard let his hands drop on his desk and shook his head, "No, I need answers. These…aliens attacked the Migrant Fleet, and then vanished. All we've got to work with now is scarce reports of fleeting glimpses. We could go to one of the other destroyed colonies, but that could either be dangerous or fruitless, neither of which are options I like."

Ashley snaked her arms around his shoulders, "And the 'stressing-about-it-until-you-drop-from-exhaustion' option is a better one?"

"No." The commander shook his head as he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I just wish we had something to go on. Whoever these aliens are, they're good at covering their tracks."

Ashley leaned forward over his shoulder, "Maybe you should just rest for a while. You're worn out, Gabe. Maybe something will turn up while you're resting, or you'll think of something you missed once your brain isn't strained from the stress."

Shepard leaned his head to look at her, "Maybe you're right. I need to go check on the exam teams real fast, then I can catch some rack time." He stood up from his chair, sliding Ashley's arms off his shoulders and down his back. He left his wife in the captain's quarters and headed over across the mess to the med lab. Dr. Chakwas had her back to him, looking over the alien body, when he walked up.

The doctor continued working as she spoke, "With all due respect, commander, I'm not giving another stim shot. You've been awake for two days. You need to…"

"This isn't a lecture I haven't already gotten, doctor." Shepard waved her comment away, "I'm going to rest after I get a report on the alien and his gizmos."

"Good." Chakwas set what she was doing down and looked at him, "The last thing we need is the ship's commanding officer collapsing from exhaustion in the middle of the CIC."

Shepard grimaced and scratched his neck, "Now you sound like my wife."

The good doctor smirked mischievously, "Well, it's good to know there's a little common sense in the family." She looked at what she was working on, a pair of vials of the alien's blood, "I've made some interesting discoveries about our alien friend here. His blood's black color does come from high iron content, which bases his hemoglobin much like human blood, but there's something else. The plasma matrix is three times thicker than human blood and contains a very advanced form of fibrin I've never seen before. The fibrin carries the same proteins that are found in his skin and organs. Essentially, he has the building blocks for his body flowing through his blood at all times."

Shepard furrowed his brow, "So, if some part of his body was injured, his blood would have the proteins to heal it quickly."

Dr. Chakwas nodded, "It would seem so. If his body were damaged, these proteins would be released in the damaged area. It looks like they isolate the damage to one area of the body and accelerate the healing process. They would clot his blood, deaden pain receptors, and bolster his immune system within a few seconds, all allowing the healing process to go on hastened and unhindered." She looked the body over, "I'd dare say that was one of the reasons you had such a time of putting him down. Any damage done to his body would have remained contained, making sure it didn't spread or get worse."

Shepard scoffed, "So, not only do they have thick hides, but they're quick healers. This just keeps getting better."

"Which is why I'm glad it's you killing them and not me."

"Gee, thanks." Shepard rolled his eyes as he left the med bay and rode the lift down to the hold, where he found everyone hard at work. He walked up to the armor table, where Garrus and Tali were analyzing the alien's body armor.

Garrus looked at Shepard as he walked up and did a double-take, "Commander, you don't look well."

Shepard hid a yawn with the back of his hand, "I just need some rest. How's it coming?"

The turian looked at the piece they were analyzing, "Much better than before. Turns out that Tali is quite the metallurgist."

She acknowledged the comment with a shrug, "You have to be if you're looking at metals for a hull patch or support beam."

Shepard raised his brow and nodded, "So what did you get?"

The quarian machinist referred to the monitor she was working on, "It's an alloy of tungsten, titanium, platinum, and iridium. They're all naturally occurring metals, although the iridium is somewhat rare. The combined effect of the alloy has a tensile strength that surpasses most types of steel, but is still light enough to be worn as armor."

"How light is it?"

Tali looked at the pieces on the table, "It's lighter than it should be, given its density. I doubt any of our species could wear this armor and still be able to walk properly. Obviously, these aliens are rather strong."

Shepard nodded and looked at Garrus, "Does all this match your scans of their ships."

The turian nodded grimly, "Their ships are composed of a similar alloy as this armor, and have much thicker skins. You saw what Joker's dive bomb maneuver did to one of their cruisers. The torpedo punched a hole clean through Sovereign, but only dented the armor on the alien vessel."

The commander nodded and breathed a weary sigh, "Which means we'll need a substantial force to repel even a light attack. Good work, you two. Keep studying that alloy, but look for a way to damage it more effectively. If we can find a way to break it, that may give us the edge we need." Shepard continued on to the next table, where Liara was still working on studying the alien weapon.

Shepard leaned his hip on the table and folded his arms, "You have anything yet?"

Liara nodded, "With much work, a lot of study, and a very expensive call to Dr. Kaissen, I think I have produced results. This weapon has an element zero core within the firing chamber. From what I can tell of how the device works, the way it fires is by pulsing the element zero with a saturating positive charge."

The human Spectre furrowed his brow, "Hold on, how would that make it fire? Positive saturating the ezoe would just make it really heavy."

She gave him a berating look, "I was not finished, commander. By saturating the element zero, the weapon creates a small but intense mass effect field, creating a gravitational distortion capable of distorting space/time. This distortion draws dark energy from the air or space around the weapon, coalescing it in sufficient quantities around the element zero core. The weapon then draws the energy from the core with a potent magnetic field, compresses it, and ejects it from the barrel. As we have already observed, the effect is quite devastating."

Shepard scratched his head, "That still doesn't explain the 'gun-getting-heavier' part."

Liara called up a diagram on her screen, "The core is no bigger than your thumb, commander. Any mass effecting fields it generates do not reach beyond the firing chamber. Yet in spite of the limited range, the field is powerful enough to draw dark energy out of space."

Shepard nodded as the mental pieces fell together, "So it creates a gravity distortion strong enough to harvest dark energy, then it shoots that energy through the barrel."

She nodded, "Exactly."

The commander stroked his chin pensively as he thought for a moment, "See if you can find a way to jam the mass effect field. Your biotics may do be able to tamper with the weapon firing. Also, try to get Tali or Garrus to contribute a few tech mines to the cause. Maybe they have some little technological dirty trick that we can use." Leaving his people to do their work, Shepard turned and headed back to the upper deck to go get some rest.

He laid back on his bunk and closed his eyes, seeking sleep that didn't waste much time in showing up. As he began to drift off, the intercom on the headboard began to beep. Someone in the CIC or bridge wanted his attention. Shepard threw his arm over his eyes and told the beep to go away, but it continued sounding faithfully every five seconds. Resigning himself to the cruel fact that the Spectre's life was going to deprive him of rest every chance it got, Shepard reached up and slapped the intercom button.

"Joker, I thought I told you to hold my calls."

"_You did, sir, but I think you need to hear this one. It sounds important._"

"Then it had better be President Huerta on the red phone." He kept his eyes closed under his arm on his face.

"_Not quite, commander. It's Wrex. He wants to talk to you._"

Shepard's eyes snapped open. When Wrex left a year ago, he specifically said that he didn't want anyone following him or calling to check up on him. If he was initiating the call, it had to be important.

"Pipe it down to my terminal." Filled with a renewed vigor, he jumped from his bunk and headed to the desk. Within a moment, the screen displayed a call window with the sending frequency, but no location.

"_Shepard? You'd better pick up. I'm not making this call just because I like the sound of my voice._"

"I'm here, Wrex. What do you need?"

"_Finally. Listen, I need to talk to you. I've been keeping up with the news vids, about these new aliens that are attacking border colonies. I thought you might want to know that I think I've stumbled onto one of their bases._"

Shepard's gut tightened. A base in the Traverse? It was worse than he thought. They didn't vanish to retreat; they vanished to set up camp for a prolonged conflict. Shepard called up the intel files and star charts to log what he found out.

"Are you still on Virmire?"

"_I'm not on Virmire, but the base is. I left there long ago, but I'm still in the same system. I'm sending the position now._"

The coordinates came up and Shepard immediately sent them to Joker with a go order attached, "Thanks, Wrex. If it's not too much trouble, could you stay where you are so we can link up with you?"

He heard Wrex scoff over the comm, "_I'm not going anywhere any time soon. Ship's too damaged for that. Those alien weapons are bloody powerful._"

The commander frowned and leaned closer to the screen, "Are you alright? Do you have power?"

"_Enough for life support and a quick call. Other than that, I'm just drifting._"

"We'll be there as soon as we can." He smiled, "And I won't tell anyone that we gave you a hand."

"_You'd better not. I've got a reputation to think about. I'll see you when you get out here._" The call window closed, indicating that Wrex had killed the transmission. Shepard packaged the information about a possible alien base in the Traverse in a high priority report to the Council and sent it off. As he sat back in his chair, his intercom beeped again.

He hit the button to answer it, "Shepard."

"_Commander, it's Garrus. One of the parts of the alien armor is…doing something. I think you need to come down here and see this._"

Shepard nodded, but the faint buzz that had just started at the back of his skull told him that he probably already knew what it was, "I'm on my way." He left his quarters and made quick time down to the hold where Garrus was waiting for him. As expected, when he stepped off the lift, Shepard saw a familiar pulsating light from the alien helmet.

Garrus turned around to the commander as he approached, "It just started glowing like this a few minutes ago. We don't know what to make of it."

Shepard nodded and picked up the helmet, "I've seen it do this before." Before putting it on, he looked at Garrus and Tali, "No matter what happens, don't interfere." With that final order, he slipped the helmet on again. The emitters inside touched his head and his mind filled with images like before. He saw a view of the galaxy that focused in on the Traverse and Terminus Systems in particular, changing to a tactical map. A voice spoke in the alien language as three of the clusters highlighted in red with about a dozen small red arrows branching out from them to surrounding systems and beyond. A large alien rune flashed over one of the reddened systems, possibly indicating something of importance. A string of alien letters scrolled across the image, just as indecipherable as the alien tongue. Finally, the image faded to black silence.

Shepard removed the helmet and looked at Garrus and Tali, "How long has it been?"

Garrus shrugged, "You just stood there with a blank stare on your face for about ten minutes. I had a nice coffee break while you were zoned out. You should do that more often."

"Very funny." The human Spectre braced himself on the table as the lightheadedness he'd been expecting washed over him, "These aliens use Prothean beacon technology to transmit orders to their troops."

Tali nodded, "That would explain those funny little emitter devices inside the helmet." She looked at the commander, "Are you alright, Shepard?"

He nodded, "I'll be fine. I just need a few minutes to let the cobwebs clear." He stood and shook his head to clear it, "I'm going to go get some much needed rest, then try to make sense of the transmission I just saw. I'm _not_ to be disturbed until further notice."

After catching ten hours of rack time, Shepard set about trying to decipher the vision he'd seen from the alien helmet. The problem was that, like the one he'd seen before, it didn't make any sense. If he could read and speak the alien language, he could make sense of it all, but all he had to go off of was a bunch of sketchy pictures like it was a shoddy game of Pictionary. Shepard did manage to come up with a few ideas of what he saw was by the time Joker informed him that they were within sight of Wrex's ship and were commencing docking maneuvers. Shepard waited in the bridge with Ashley and Tali as they picked up Wrex, then dumped his totaled ship like the dead weight that it was. Shepard heard a commotion from over his shoulder and turned around to see Wrex's massive krogan form striding up to the bridge with a marine in hot pursuit.

The marine leaned around Wrex and gestured to him as he spoke, "Sorry, commander, but he insisted on seeing you. We couldn't hold him."

Shepard smiled and shook his head, "That's all right, soldier. Stand down." He walked up to Wrex and shook his hand, "Good to see you again, Wrex."

The krogan nodded in return, "Likewise, Shepard."

"How goes your search for those cured krogan you were looking for?"

Wrex shrugged, "Haven't found any yet, but I've got a couple of leads I still need to run down."

Shepard's smile faded as he went back to business, "Now where did you find this alien base?"

Wrex reached into a pouch on the thigh of his Berserker VIII heavy armor suit and produced a small device, "Ship's flight recorder. It has all the details." He handed it to Shepard, who in turn handed it to a nearby crewman.

The commander nodded slowly as the crewman scurried off to process the recorder, "Hopefully, this will lead to something. We can check it out and at least get a gauge of how big their force is. Thanks, Wrex. You don't know how much you've helped us out."

Wrex nodded sullenly, "There's something else, Shepard." He pulled an OSD out of his pocket, "While I was on Virmire, I checked the ruins of Saren's base for salvage and…well…I found him."

Shepard's eyes widened, "You found Kaiden?"

Wrex nodded again, "He and a couple of salarians survived the nuke by holing up in the base of the AA tower. When the thing collapsed around them…well, they probably didn't have long before the air ran out. I found this OSD on his body. I think it has something for you on it."

Shepard carefully accepted the OSD, silently sliding it into a nearby console and activating the playback. Ashley walked up next to him and held his arm as the recording started. The image skipped with static from time to time, but was clear enough to see and hear. The view panned wildly around a dark room of debris for a moment before settling in on Kaiden's face.

"…_This thing on? Finally. I've got a short span here. Tool's almost out of juice and the air's getting thin. Shepard…Gabe, I hope this message finds you wherever you are, and I hope Ash is there to see it, too, 'cause it's important. I just want you guys to know that I don't regret what happened here. I've lived a good life, even with brain camp and Jump Zero and all. I've lived well, and I don't have anything to be sorry for._" He took a moment to catch his breath before continuing, "_So…so if I don't regret anything here, than neither should you. Gabe, I don't want you to regret your decision. I knew the risks when I volunteered. I knew what I was getting myself into. Don't blame yourself for the choice you made. I probably couldn't have done it if I were in your position._" He paused to breathe again, his breathing becoming dodgy, "_Ash, I don't want you to blame yourself for surviving me. My number came up before yours. That's all I can say about it…Truth is, Gabe, I knew about you and Ash. I knew you two were getting a little cozy with each other…What I wanted to say before the attack was that I wanted you two to go on even if I didn't make it…You're made for each other…For crying out loud, you two had better get married after you catch Saren, or I might have to take some drastic measures…_" He paused and leaned his head back against the wall he was sitting against, taking a long moment to catch his breath, "_I'm out of time…My tool's juice is about gone…The salarians have already passed out…I'm betting I'm not too far behind…Go for it, Gabe…Keep the galaxy safe from scum like Saren…and for Pete's sake…Ask Ash out on a date or something…I'll be watching you two…You can count on it…_" Kaiden's head fell back against the wall as the image faded to static.

Shepard shut off the recording, trying to hold back his tears while Ashley quietly rested her head against his shoulder, sniffling and failing at trying not to look sad. He put an arm around his wife as he glanced back at Wrex briefly.

"Thank you, Wrex."

Wrex just looked sullen, "I buried them on a small hill overlooking the base ruins and gave them a good service. It was a krogan service, but a warrior's service nonetheless." The krogan gently patted Shepard on the shoulder before turning and leaving the bridge, leaving them with their thoughts. Joker even risked getting out of his chair and hobbling to the head for a conveniently timed bathroom break, knowing that the Shepards would need a few minutes alone.

Ashley and Gabriel just stood there in the vacant bridge, holding each other and pondering their mutual friend, Kaiden Alenko, as the concept of his death finally sank in. Kaiden gave his life so that they could go on together. He sacrificed himself not just to save their lives, but to save their happiness. In doing so, Kaiden had proven himself more of a friend in death than he ever could have in life. They both respected his sacrifice, but at the same time it still put sorrow to their thoughts of him to know that he was truly gone. Right now, they just needed a moment to grieve.

Shepard pulled away from Ashley and looked at her, "You all right?"

She wiped her eyes and nodded, "Yeah. I just need a moment to pull myself together."

Shepard nodded, "Go to our quarters, Ash. You're off duty for the rest of the day. Get some rest." She nodded briefly before turning and heading out of the bridge. Shepard turned to look out the window at the passing stars. Kaiden had given his life, his future, his very being to save the galaxy. That sacrifice would not go unanswered. Shepard's brow furrowed with a hardened resolve. These aliens had to be stopped. The _Normandy_ had been running all over the galaxy cataloguing the destruction these beings left in their wake. Shepard shook his head slowly. It was time to turn the tables. It was time for there to be no rest for the wicked.


	7. Chapter 7

7

Shepard stood on the command platform in the CIC with his arms folded, staring intently at the hologram in front of him as the planet Virmire came into view. Virmire was a tropical planet whose surface was predominantly covered in water. The few land masses that dotted the surface were either mountains or wet lands. Saren was lucky to have found a continent with enough stable land to place his base. If the aliens did have a base here, they would have a bung of a time finding someplace to put it.

As the _Normandy_ came closer to the planet, Shepard didn't need the ship's advanced sensors to see that they wouldn't have an easy time getting down to the surface. A number of alien starships ranging in size from frigates to heavy cruisers were keeping watch in orbit.

The intercom from the bridge buzzed on the handrail, "_Virmire dead ahead, sir, and it looks like the neighbors are home. I've got a number of alien ships holding geosynchronous orbit over one of the planet's larger land masses._"

Shepard nodded to himself as he hit the comm, "Engage stealth systems and bring us in as close as you can. I want to see if we can get to the surface."

"_Roger. IES engaged and plotting course for the enemy fleet._"

The commander watched as all the crewmen at the heat load monitors went to work. Over the last year since the _Normandy_ was commissioned, the monitors had developed a new technique of periodically venting minute amounts of heat and rads to prolong stealth running time. They couldn't drop heat when they were near enemy ships to avoid detection, but for passive stealth runs, the procedure kept them stealthy enough and lengthened their stealth running time by almost two hours. Right now, though, they needed to be all but invisible, so they wouldn't be venting anything.

As the _Normandy_ closed distance with the enemy fleet, Joker throttled back to a more casual pace. Sudden or fast movement could be picked up on sensors and it produced less heat and rads to catch in the sinks. Shepard's eyes danced across the image in front of him, appraising the situation and tallying up whether or not it was safe to risk a landing. If at all possible, he wanted to see this alien base with his own two eyes. Shepard rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before hitting the handrail intercom.

"Bring us down, Joker, but be quiet about it. There're a lot of eyes out there, and it only takes one soldier to sound the alarm. Try to land us as close as safely possible to the alien base."

"_Will do, commander, but that won't be very close. I'm already detecting AAA signals in a wide range across the continent._"

Shepard nodded, "Do what you can. We'll work with what we get from there." He turned around and headed into the comm room, where he had the team assembled and waiting. He walked to the hologram pedestals and turned around to address them.

The human Spectre folded his arms and made eye contact with each person, "We've made it to Virmire, but everything's going to get dicey from here out." He pointed to the two he wanted, "Wrex, Garrus, you're going groundside with me. I want a visual confirmation on this enemy base."

Wrex shrugged, "You can't use my recorder data?"

Shepard shook his head, "It's not that the data's bad or that I don't trust you, Wrex. I want to see this base for myself so I can tell the Council just how screwed we really are." He looked to the team in general, "You all know your duties. Let's get to it. Dismissed." The specified team geared up and met in the hold as the _Normandy_ descended through the planet's humid atmosphere. This would be less of a Mako drop and more of a deployment landing. The _Normandy_ would set down as close as safely possible and deploy the Mako along with a squad of marines to set up a perimeter.

Shepard snapped his restraints in the Mako's driver seat as the hold door opened to reveal Virmire's blue skies and sandy surface. He drove the vehicle out of the bay into the shallow creek bed and immediately consulted the nav system to find a clear route to the alien base. Unfortunately, the only clear route only brought them within a kilometer of the base, so they'd have to go the last click on foot. Resigning himself to a long haul as Wrex and Garrus took their seats, Shepard sat back and throttled up. They followed a creek bed for a several kilometers before the terrain closed up on them, prohibiting the Mako from going any further.

Shepard braked to a stop and popped the hatch to climb out, "We're on foot from here."

Garrus poked his head out of the turret hatch and looked at the terrain in front of them, "Looks like we might have some climbing ahead of us, too." Though they wouldn't be scaling any sheer cliff faces, the team would have to mount a number of very rocky hills to reach their destination. Wrex took point to lead the way to the alien base as they pushed on through the rocks and steams. After a long and tiring walk, Wrex stopped and crouched at the base of a sandy hill.

The krogan jerked his head toward the crest of the hill, "Just over there."

Shepard nodded and took his sniper rifle from his back as he dropped prone and belly-crawled up the hill with Garrus off to his left. Wrex stayed back since he was a little too big to hide well. When he crested the hill, Shepard's jaw dropped in sheer amazement. The area the aliens had moved into had to cover a three square kilometer footprint. Dozens of prefab shelters had been set up and some larger, more permanent structures were under construction.

What amazed Shepard the most was the terrain. The aliens had flattened it completely. Judging by the blast marks in the surrounding area, it looked like they'd bombarded the area from orbit and flattened the area into a parking lot. It was an interesting, if not thoroughly destructive, feat of engineering.

Shepard deployed his sniper rifle and peered into the scope to get a closer look at the base. He slowly panned across the area, identifying hundreds, if not thousands, of troops, pilots, fighter craft, ground vehicles, and at least two starships.

"These guys mean business. It looks like they have a full force deployment down there."

Garrus nodded, looking through the scope of his own rifle, "Heavy vehicles, support units, siege weapons." He looked at Shepard, "And this is only one base?"

The commander nodded, "One of three." He had narrowed down the possibilities for the vision he'd seen from the alien's helmet. Most likely, it was displaying force deployment orders, showing that they were holing up in three places and sending out patrols from there to determine enemy strength.

Shepard pulled his eye back from his scope and shook his head, "The Council's going to love this." As he looked over the base, he noticed some activity in one area where a smaller vessel had just set down. When he looked through the scope again and sighted that area, he saw a number of alien soldiers line up in two rows, making processional formation. As they formed up, the shuttle opened and more marched out to take flanking positions in the group. Once they were placed, a single alien wearing ornamental armor confidently strode out of the shuttle flanked by several soldiers holding what looked like spears. His armor had a long, grey cape with alien runes running down the edges. He walked with a determined stride toward one of the larger prefab buildings.

Shepard looked up from his scope for a moment before zooming in on the alien again, "Who's that guy?"

Garrus looked over at him, "Who?"

The commander pointed to where he was looking, "That alien in the fancy armor."

The turian panned his rifle over to look, but never had a chance to answer. Before he could respond, an energy blast struck the crest of the hill near them. Both Shepard and Garrus ducked and looked around, but never saw where it came from.

"Eyes up!" Wrex called their attention to the skies, where several aliens were flying away from them on the tail end of a strafing run. They were standing on some kind of winged jet gliders that made an eerie whirring sound as they flew, with small pods slung underneath that sported weapons. They cranked their gliders around and came in for another pass. The base below had erupted into a scurry of commotion, no doubt having received an alert from the air patrol.

"We've been made! Let's move!" Shepard switched his sniper rifle out for his assault rifle as he slid down the hill. The trio took off at a dead run across the terrain that had just taken them nearly an hour to cross before. Shepard, Wrex, and Garrus periodically turned and fired a burst at their airborne pursuers, but usually with little effect. The alien patrol kept strafing as they ran, blasting columns of dirt and water up around them, and progressively getting more accurate.

Shepard was thrown forward from a blast that struck way too close behind him, rolled to his feet, and came up running again. A quick eye check of his helmet HUD showed he'd lost nearly half his KBs to that shot. He turned to look as he ran. There were five of them, all staying in a relatively close formation. He had an idea that was a long shot, but they were in a bad way right now, and any idea was a good one. Shepard pulled a grenade from his launcher and primed the HE VIII charge. He killed the timer and set the remote detonator's arming time to zero seconds. If he wasn't careful, the grenade could go off in his hand now, but that's exactly how he wanted it. The aliens came in for another shot, firing a blast at the trio. As the dark energy blast struck the shallow water next to him, Shepard spun around in mid air, flung the grenade along an anticipated vector, and completed his spin to keep on running. He counted off barely a second in his mind before hitting the detonator, rewarded with a loud blast above and behind him. He looked up to see four of the five pilots breaking off in random directions. Looking back revealed the fifth pilot falling to the ground, his damaged glider exploding against a nearby cliff face. It wasn't much, but it was one down, four to go.

The team reached the Mako and almost literally jumped in. Shepard slid into the driver's seat and jammed the throttle to full while Garrus saddled up in the turret. He turned around to open fire on their pursuers while Wrex leaned out the open hatch to do the same, but the aliens held to an evasive attack pattern that made them very difficult targets. Shepard turned hard and jammed the brake, spinning them around backwards. The aliens over flew them and broke off to come around again. He waited until they had formed up again and were coming in to attack before jamming the throttle and speeding forward under them again. He hit the brake again to power slide around to head back toward the _Normandy_. They sped down the creek bed at hazardous speeds, returning fire on their pursuers. Garrus fired from both the 155mm gun and the coaxial chain gun in a vain attempt to bring at least one of them down.

One of the aliens broke formation and flew down very close to the ground. Shepard glanced to his left to see the alien pilot flying level with the Mako. It looked over at him and screamed violently, holding what looked like some kind of bomb that it was probably going to try to slap on the side of the vehicle. In response, Shepard cranked the Mako over, smashing the side of the vehicle into the glider. The pilot rebounded off the armor and regained control, pulling in close to plant the device. Shepard swerved again, smashing the glider harder this time. The pilot rebounded away, but this time hit the rock face next to him. He smashed into the jagged rocks and fell back out of sight.

Shepard opened his comm to the _Normandy_, "Joker, get ready to be airborne as soon as we get there. We're going to have every alien soldier and gun battery breathing down our necks very soon. We're coming in hot, so get ready."

"_Roger that, sir. The AAA grid in the area just lit up like a Christmas tree a few minutes ago. What did you guys do out there?_"

The commander glanced over his shoulder quickly, "I'll sum up by saying we're bringing a few uninvited guests home with us. Just be ready for a hot dust off. Shepard out." Garrus launched a sabotage charge at the alien formation, blasting out a red burst of energy from where it exploded. One pilot was caught in the blast and something on his glider blew out, leaving a thick trail of black smoke from its exhaust. He throttled down and broke off back toward the base, too damaged to continue pursuit. Two left, and only a few hundred meters to the _Normandy_.

Shepard pulled around the last turn before the clearing where the _Normandy_ was resting, losing tire grip and power sliding around most of it. The alien flyers rounded the corner and lit off a series of dark energy blasts. Two missed wide or low while one splashed against the Mako's KBs. Shepard lined up with the _Normandy_'s bow door when the last thing he expected happened. The forward magnetic accelerators deployed and opened up with a round each. Shepard resisted the urge to duck as the two rounds thundered mere meters over the Mako. The ordnance smashed into the rock face and exploded brightly, consuming the two remaining pilots in a cloud of fire. Shepard breathed a deep sigh as he angled the Mako toward the ship's hold.

"Uh, Shepard?" The commander looked back at hearing Garrus' troubled voice and his stomach imploded on itself. One of the alien pilots blasted full speed out of the explosion, crouched low and holding onto his glider with one hand while wisps of smoke trailed from both him and the vehicle. Shepard's eyes widened and he jammed the throttle, squealing the tires for the last dozen meters into the _Normandy_'s hold. The Mako ducked in completely as the hold ramp started to retract and the doors began to close.

The alien was prepared for that. He rolled his glider up on one wing to present a thinner profile, leaning hard and holding tight to stay on. He slashed through the doors just as they closed, jumping off the glider and sliding across the deck as his vehicle smashed into the back of the Mako and wadded up into a ball of crumpled metal. He rolled across the deck and hit the far wall with a hard thud, but didn't take any time to recover before jumping to his feet and reaching for a rifle slung across his back.

Wrex jumped from the Mako and tackled the alien, smashing him to the deck and tossing his weapon. An alien wrestling match ensued between the krogan and the unknown being as each tossed, swung, smashed, and bludgeoned the other around the hold. The marines all kept their weapons trained on the pair as their tussle traveled across the deck, toppling the exam tables and generally making a mess. Shepard had climbed out of the Mako by now and was following the fight, looking an opportunity to help. It was a mess. It looked like both were fairly evenly matched for strength and endurance, so this scuffle might not let up for a while.

After what seemed like an eternity, Wrex finally rolled out on top of the alien and landed a punch to the back of his head. He pressed his knee into the alien's back while pulling one arm backward, keeping him effectively pinned. He kept one knee in the small of the alien's back while his other foot pinned the other arm to the floor.

Wrex glanced over at Shepard, "Jump on in whenever you feel like helping!"

"Pin him down! Pin him!" Shepard and a few marines all moved in to grab the alien, "I want him alive!" He flattened the alien's hand to the deck as it reached for its dagger, knocking the blade from its grip. The alien was so strong that he had to lean his entire weight into its arm to keep it down. Liara showed up with a neural disruptor and jammed the device against the side of the alien's neck, causing it to convulse for a moment before falling limp and unconscious.

The commander stood up and looked to the surrounding marines, pointing to the unconscious alien, "I want him in restraints in the brig, and make sure to keep any sharp objects away from him. I don't want our only prisoner killing himself like the last one." He watched as they hefted the alien up and dragged him off to the brig. He looked over at Wrex, who had a number of marks to show for his little tussle. He had a bruise over his left eye, a number of cuts on his lips and cheeks, and a long scratch above the scar across his forehead shell, but none the worse for wear. He gave Shepard a respectful nod before turning and heading out of the hold.

Without skipping a beat, Shepard took off out of the hold and rode the lift to the upper deck. He bounded up the steps and scrambled through the CIC to get to the bridge, where he skidded to a stop behind Joker.

"Get us airborne and get us gone, Joker. We're probably going to have to shake some pursuit on the way out."

Joker's hands started flying across his panels, "Secure and aweigh. You know, commander, I'm noticing a pattern here. Every time we come to Virmire, we always have to leave in a big hurry."

Shepard smirked as he caught his breath, "Yes, and it's always because we do some damage to our enemy. I think it's worth it." He leaned on the chair for a moment to get some air before standing and turning out of the bridge.

Shepard went back down to look at the mess that was the hold. The back end of the Mako had been mangled a bit, the examination tables had been overturned, and debris from the alien's glider was scattered everywhere. Shepard took a deep breath before heading to the lift. He had to file this report with the Council and Ashley was probably worried sick about him. He had things to do, and now was the time to do it.

------------

Shepard walked into the brig to find Garrus staring into the one occupied cell. He walked up next to the turian to see what had him so captivated. The alien was held against the wall by restraint clamps built into the cell wall. His arms were kept spread and his feet were held at shoulder width. To finish off the ensemble, the cell was enclosed with a potent kinetic barrier. He'd been stripped of his armor, which was held in a security locker on the other side of the brig. As Shepard walked up, the alien scowled at him, anger and hatred beaming from its luminescent, yellow eyes.

Shepard nodded to the alien in the cell, "How's he been?"

Garrus just shook his head, "He's been like that ever since he woke up. He's made a few attempts to get out and one attempt to kill himself, but we've held him back well enough. Most of the time he just glares at us like that, sometimes adding a few angry comments in his own language. Judging by how…vehement his words are, I'd guess that he's cursing at us. He can't really move and he has no mouth, so he can't bite anyone, but that doesn't stop him from getting violent." As if on cue, the alien strained against his restraints toward them, growling out a phrase in his own tongue.

Shepard shook his head, "We don't want to hold you like this. It's for your own good. We just want some answers." The alien snarled in response and relaxed against the clamps.

The commander looked at Garrus, "Medical?"

The turian shrugged, "Dr. Chakwas hasn't been able to get close enough to him. He lashes out at anyone within arm's reach. As far as she can tell, though, he's none the worse for beating he took."

Shepard nodded absently as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small item. He looked at it in his hand briefly before looking at Garrus and handing it to him, "By the way, this is for you."

Garrus looked at Shepard and the item in his hand quizzically. It was a small, glossy box, the kind rank insignias and medals are kept in. He cautiously accepted the box and opened it to find a Spectre medallion inside.

Garrus' beady eyes widened at seeing the medal, "Wow. I…um…"

Shepard snickered under his breath, "The paperwork will catch up with us once this all blows over, but I think you've earned it."

The turian looked up from the medal to Shepard, "I really don't know what to say, sir, accept thank you."

Shepard nodded to the turian agent, "Truth be told, Garrus, you were Spectre material back when you first joined the team to go after Saren. Except back then, you were too reckless and impatient. I believed you when you said that the whole experience with Dr. Saleon had changed you. I put your name forward for the Spectres after you rejoined C-Sec."

That comment brought Garrus' head up again, "So you're why they pulled me for Spectre evaluation?"

The commander nodded, "Like I said, I believe that the whole Dr. Saleon experience changed you for the better. There's no better agent or investigator than you out there, Garrus. You've got a lot of skill, and I think that skill could be put to better use in the Spectres then in C-Sec."

Garrus closed the medal box and nodded to Shepard, "I am honored, commander."

Shepard shook Garrus' outstretched hand, "The honor was mine, Garrus." He turned to face their alien guest again, "It won't be official until your induction ceremony before the Council, but you've got all the rights and privileges associated with the station."

The turian turned back toward the caged alien, "On the note of Spectre activities, what's our next move?"

Shepard folded his arms as he leaned against the KB frame, "Well, Liara came up with an idea that I think has some merit to it. She thought that since these guys use so many aspects of Prothean design in there technology, we should bring our friend here to Ilos and let Vigil get a good look at him. First of all, that can rule out whether or not he is actually Prothean, and it could give us some insight into their devices and why they look so Prothean."

Garrus shrugged, "Sounds like a plan."

The commander nodded toward the alien, "Keep an eye on him. Let me know if he tries anything funny." With that final order, Shepard turned and walked out of the brig on his way to the CIC. He nodded to himself, thinking that it was all rather worth it. Now they didn't have to go off of scavenged information from damaged armor and a dead body. Now they had a living being to work with. While trying to get him to cooperate would be a challenge, it was still a step in the right direction, and any step in the right direction was a welcome one.


	8. Chapter 8

8

Shepard's mood went from elated to irritated in a rather short amount of time. With some fancy footwork on Joker's part, the _Normandy_ managed to evade pursuit by the alien fleet by ducking behind a nearby moon and kicking in the stealth systems. The pursuing frigates passed them by completely and returned to their fleet when they didn't find anything. It wasn't shaking their pursuit that was perplexing. It was navigating the relay maze between Virmire and Ilos that was getting under Shepard's skin. It took the better part of two days to get around from cluster to cluster and relay to relay and eventually to the Mu Relay. Shepard had begun to grow anxious from all the waiting.

The commander stood on the command platform in the CIC, watching his crew go about their work. They were all giving him a wide berth and shooting sidelong glances at him from time to time. They all knew he was on edge. Shepard didn't like his crew being afraid of him, but he was having a hard time keeping his mood to himself right now. It wasn't that he was impatient. It was that he hated having his hands tied. The alien in the brig could answer a lot of questions for them. Who were they? Where did they come from? Why were they attacking? There was so much that they could learn about the situation, and the waiting was working on Shepard's last nerve.

The commander turned at feeling a tap on his back to find Ashley standing behind him. She cleared her throat and jerked her head toward the comm room. Not entirely sure of what she wanted, Shepard followed her in. Once in the circle of seats, Ashley sat her husband down in one and slinked her way around behind him.

Ashley leaned over and began massaging his shoulders, "Gabe, you're as tense as a block of titanium. You need to ease up."

Shepard let his head fall back and he looked up into his wife's eyes, "I couldn't get through one day of this whole Spectre's life without you, Ash." He took a relieved breath before continuing, "This waiting is going to drive me crazy."

Ashley knelt down and rested her chin on his shoulder, "What's to wait for? We have one of their soldiers in custody. Why can't we question him now?"

Shepard scoffed, "Besides the fact that we can't understand a word he says, he probably won't cooperate unless we coerce him. We need Vigil to learn something that we can start with."

"I suppose you're right there." Ashley leaned forward and planted a brief kiss on Shepard's lips before standing, "Just loosen up, for heaven's sake, honey. I'll see you tonight." She blew another kiss at him on the way out of the comm room.

Shepard sat back in the seat and forced himself to relax for a moment. She was right. He was tense and needed to loosen up. The crew could see that he was up tight. He could work a whole lot better if he just relaxed. He laid his head back and closed his eyes to think. He really didn't need to be this tense. They had a plan and they were going through with it. He just needed to be patient. Shepard breathed a deep, relieving sigh as his mind began to wander and he started to drift.

------------

"_Commander, are you there?_"

Shepard's eyes popped open at hearing Joker's voice over the comm. He sat up in the seat and immediately glanced at his watch. Five hours had gone by since he'd last seen it. He'd fallen asleep for five hours. He felt all the better for it, but he was behind in a few of his duties now.

The commander shook his head to clear it and stood up, "I'm here, Joker."

"_There you are. I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last five minutes. We're on approach to Ilos Station. We'll be landing in about twelve minutes._"

He nodded, "Thanks, Joker. I'll be right there." Landing at Ilos Station went as planned and they set down in the clearing without a hitch. It was getting the alien prisoner from the brig to the station that caused problems. As soon as his cell's kinetic barrier was dropped, he started going berserk, straining and pulling at his restraints and growling and snarling at anyone in the vicinity. It took Wrex and the three biggest marines in the _Normandy_'s detachment to muscle him off the ship. At first, once they got him out of the _Normandy_, he calmed down as he looked around in awe at the Prothean ruins around them, but he riled up again when they got him to the research buildings. Several more marines stayed at a distance and kept their guns trained on him in case he got loose.

Shepard walked into the main research center computer room, where he confronted a Prothean holo-pedestal. On that pedestal stood Vigil, the resident VI in the local ruins and the primary VI for Ilos Station. Shepard noticed that he looked and sounded much better then when he first saw him. One of the first things the researchers did upon their arrival was hook Vigil up to a decent power source to prevent him from going offline permanently. Presently he was composed in a reddish yellow humanoid form that Shepard could only assume was a Prothean.

Vigil turned his head to look at Shepard and nodded, "Good day to you, commander."

Shepard returned the nod, "Vigil. I see you've pulled yourself together since I last saw you."

"I have my own dedicated power source now. The researchers were afraid that my processor matrix was damaged by the prolonged strain on my power supply." Vigil's image turned to face Shepard fully, "But I doubt you came for a status report. How may I assist you?"

The human Spectre crossed his arms, "I need your professional analysis of something, or someone I should say. You know more about the Protheans than even Dr. T'soni, and for good reason considering they created you. I have an alien individual in custody whose race uses a lot of Prothean aspects in their design. I want you to take a look at him and run a few speculations for me."

Vigil nodded, "I will do my best. Where is the individual?"

Shepard reached back and snapped his fingers, signaling everyone to bring the alien in. He wrestled and resisted every step of the way. Every step, that is until he saw Vigil. The alien's big yellow eyes widened when he saw the Prothean hologram and he started trembling like he was scared. He wriggled free of the marines' grips and immediately fell prostrate on the floor, muttering something that sounded like a long prayer in his own language.

Shepard arched an eyebrow at seeing the alien's reaction and looked at Vigil, "Anyone ever done that to you before?"

Vigil shook his head, looking at the praying alien, "I cannot say that anyone has." Vigil studied him for a moment longer before continuing, "I cannot venture any speculations at this time without prolonged observation, however I am quite intrigued by his language."

Ashley looked at the prostrated alien, keeping her rifle deployed in her hands, "What's so interesting about his language?"

Vigil looked at everyone, "He is speaking Prothean."

Shepard furrowed his brow and scratched his head, "Wait a minute. I've got the Prothean Cipher still rattling around in my noggin, which included the Prothean language. So why can't I understand him?"

"Likely for the same reason that I cannot." Vigil looked back at the alien, "I am having a difficult time comprehending his speech. His grammatical structure is incorrect and many of the words are badly mispronounced, but it is Prothean." The hologram studied the praying alien for a moment longer, canting his head slightly to one side, "I will run his speech through the translation filters. Give me a moment to sort out his grammar and pronunciation errors and you should hear him clearly momentarily." Vigil waved his hand through the air above the alien and the indiscernible words began to clear up into Basic English. After a moment, the alien's voice was overlaid with an English speaking tone. The alien continued his prayers, unaware that everyone could understand him now. His voice was still low and snarling, more like he was growling the words out than speaking them, and he had a thick inflection.

"…thy humble servant requests thy forgiveness for gazing upon this divine image of the First Gods. Have mercy upon thy servant for allowing the Desecrators to take my honor in this way…"

Shepard leaned closer, "Excuse me."

"What?" The alien stopped praying and looked up at Shepard with a start, curiosity in his eyes. He pointed at the commander, "You…you are speaking…How are you speaking my language?"

"Our speech is being translated." He knelt down to get on the alien's level, "My name is Shepard. What's yours?"

The alien's brow scales furrowed and he withdrew, "The Torhn'No'Ka forbids my speaking with a Desecrator."

The commander looked up at Vigil, "Torhn'No'Ka?"

He shook his head, "I am sorry, but those words do not translate."

Shepard took a deep breath and looked back at the alien, "I'm sorry. We don't want to violate your beliefs, but we need some answers. Why are your people attacking us?"

The alien growled low in his throat and his eyes narrowed in anger, "Do you not know the extent of your own transgressions, heathen? Your kind violates the sanctity of the First Gods, an offense demanding nothing less than death."

Shepard shook his head, "I don't understand. Who are the 'First Gods'?"

The alien's eyes widened in surprise, "How could you not know? The First Gods of the Galaxy! The Forebears of Ancient Myth! The Givers of the Star Relays who ascended to the planes of godhood fifty ages ago! How could you not know them when their influence permeates the very space you travel?"

Vigil waved to get Shepard's attention, "I have deactivated the translator, commander. It would appear that this being's 'First Gods' is a reference to the Protheans. And it would seem that he is under some kind of delusion about their fate." Vigil looked at the alien, "If you would permit it, commander, I would like to take some time to speak with this being in private. Perhaps my insights might be of use."

Shepard took a moment to weigh the options before nodding in agreement, "You talk to him and see if you can set him straight. Open up the translator." He looked at the alien, "Excuse me. This is Vigil. He'd like to ask you a few questions."

The alien looked at Vigil and went face-first into the floor again, "This holy image of the First Gods. I am not worthy to look upon it."

Vigil shook his head, "I am merely a virtual intelligence interface. I am not a sacred icon or anything of the like." Vigil looked at Shepard, "This may take some time. I would advise making yourselves comfortable in the lounge for the time being."

Shepard stood up and nodded, jerking his head toward the lounge and signaling his shore party to leave them alone. Everyone withdrew from the computer room and gathered in the lounge, where they waited for the better part of two hours while the alien and Vigil had a one-on-one session. Shepard stole a glance into the room from time to time to see if it looked like Vigil was making any progress. Sometimes Vigil was showing the alien some ancient image of the Protheans, sometimes it looked like they were in the middle of a heated discussion, sometimes the alien just sat there shaking his head while Vigil talked. It was hard to tell if they were getting anywhere. Surprisingly enough, Shepard felt very relaxed while Vigil and the alien conversed. His unexpected nap earlier helped a lot. Any progress, one way or the other, was good progress. If they came to an understanding with the alien, then that could open a path for negotiation. If he only became more hostile, then that would mean dealing with the situation the hard way. Either way, they would know one way or the other. After a long time, Ashley tapped Shepard's shoulder and drew his attention to the holopad in the center of the lounge with Vigil standing on it.

The VI image folded his hands behind his back, "You will be pleased to know that I have made significant progress speaking to the Gahn'Tro'Hai. It took some time to convince him, but he seems to have accepted all that I have told him."

Shepard arched an eyebrow at the hologram, "Gahn'Tro'Hai?"

"That is his race's name for themselves. It does not properly translate from Prothean, but the best rough equivalent would be 'First Servants'. It would be best if he explained himself, but he cannot move for the restraints on his legs."

The commander nodded to Wrex and tapped Ashley's shoulder before standing up and walking into the computer room. The Gahn'Tro'Hai was kneeling there on the floor, looking lost in his thoughts. His head came up when he noticed the team walking in.

He looked back down at the floor, the ridge scales along the back of his head and spine flattening down as he spoke, "I…I apologize for my previous actions against you. I had not known. There is so much history of the First Gods that we have not seen. The Shahk'Rah'Toh would be…astounded if he had heard the things I have heard today."

Shepard arched an eyebrow again, "Sorry, but you're throwing more strange words at us again."

"The Shahk'Rah'Toh is the high military commander of my people. He leads our armies in time of war and is second only to the Kahn'Hai'Dar, the great leader of the Gahn'Tro'Hai."

Shepard knelt down in front of the alien, "Let's get one thing straight before we continue: I'm going to let you go, but if you try anything, we won't hesitate to kill you. You understand?"

The alien nodded, "I do understand." Shepard looked back at Ashley and nodded. She pulled a remote from a pouch on her belt and pressed a button that unclasped all the restraints on the alien. He slowly stood, rubbing his wrists where the cuffs had been. When he stood to his full height, Shepard realized just how hard it would be to carry out his threat. The Gahn'Tro'Hai stood almost two full meters tall and nearly a meter wide at the shoulders with biceps the size of most men's thighs. They'd removed his armor earlier, but he was still quite a sturdy looking creature, especially up close. It was clear that these aliens were built for fighting.

He graced Shepard with a half bow, "I am called Shaiak'Row Ven'Tohlas'Aye, pilot and air warrior of the Talon Sky Legion, Cruiser Flotilla 'Broad Shield'." Shaiak'Row took a step past Shepard and stood in front of Wrex, "I express my appreciation of this one's fighting prowess. I have never been defeated in a melee before."

Wrex just smirked, "Anytime you want to go again, you know where to find me."

The commander gestured to Wrex, "Urdnot Wrex is a krogan, a warrior race."

Shaiak nodded respectfully, the scales around his jaw line flexing into what looked like a frown, "Then we have much in common, you and I. My people are warriors of the highest discipline."

Wrex nodded, "Is that why you exterminate helpless civilians?"

A low growl reverberated in Shaiak's throat before he turned around and took several steps away, "You refer to your colonies. My people never take prisoners. Logistics. We find them too much trouble to contain." He turned and faced them again, "Truth be told, we expected much greater resistance than what we had. After destroying the fifth colony, there was an outcry from amongst the task force to discontinue the campaign and return home, but the Shahk'Rah'Toh didn't allow it. He withdrew our forces to a few clusters and began sending recon patrols to determine your strength."

Ashley frowned, "If you're not just a bunch of killers, than would you care to explain your attack on the Migrant Fleet?"

"That attack was a mistake." The alien folded his big arms across his broad chest, "We received reports of a massive fleet of ships that moved through these quadrants of space. Naturally, we assumed them to be warships. When we discovered otherwise, the fleet master ordered all vessels to disengage and withdraw, but the Shahk'Rah'Toh sent direct orders to continue the assault, and no proper warrior defies his orders."

Wrex frowned and scoffed, "And no proper warrior bites like a blind varren, either."

"Stow the insults, both of you. That won't get us anywhere." Shepard looked at Shaiak, "I apologize on their behalf. However, I would like to know why your people are attacking."

Shaiak looked down and shook his head, "I'm sorry. It's still a lot to comprehend all at once. For so long, I've believed in a glorious ascension, what became of the First Gods. To learn that they were actually exterminated by these machines, these Reapers, is much to fathom." He looked at the team, "Forgive me. I digress. We, my people, are the Gahn'Tro'Hai, or simply the gahn, if you wish. The gahn have revered the First Gods as our deities since the beginning of time. They are the ones you refer to as 'Protheans'. They are the focus of our religion. When sacred relics of the First Gods are found, they are treated with the utmost care and respect. They are carefully and ceremonially studied, observed, reverse-engineered, and then enshrined, never to be touched by mortal hand again. When we first encountered your races several months ago, we saw that the holy sites of the First Gods were being pillaged for their technology. No respect was held for anything taken from the sites. My people were incensed at this. Then recently, we saw that several sites had been recklessly destroyed by your kind, and that was too much. Upon hearing this, my people were outraged, and they demanded that we go to war for your sacrilege."

Ashley nodded and looked at Shepard, "That would explain why they seem to hate us so much. I wouldn't take too kindly to someone going around trash-talking God."

Shaiak nodded to her, "There is not one of my people who is not fully devoted to serving the First Gods. We are servants as much as we are warriors." His eyelids slid up over his luminescent eyes and he rubbed the scales on his forehead with one hand, "But that was before I learned what I know now. It will take some getting used to."

Every head in the room nodded, seemingly accepting the gahn's change of mind. Every head, except Shepard's, who was staring vacantly at the wall, lost in his thoughts.

Ashley noticed her husband's face and leaned toward him, "Gabe? Are you alright?"

Shepard's brow furrowed as he looked at the gahn, "Shaiak'Row, you said that several Prothean sites had been destroyed. What sites are you referring to exactly?"

"There were three larger sites that were mentioned." The big alien closed his large eyes and thought for a moment before continuing, "There was a site on Therum in Knossos System of the Artemis Tau Cluster that was destroyed. There was another sight in the Amazon System that was destroyed recently, also. The most recent was a site on a frozen world in the Armstrong Cluster."

Shepard frowned and looked at Ashley, "I know about the Therum site. We were there. But Amazon and Armstrong?"

Wrex shook his head, "I've visited those systems recently. If some Prothean ruins were knocked down in the last couple months, I would've heard about it."

Shaiak's forehead scales crinkled, "Are you saying these sites were not destroyed?"

The Spectre shook his head, "If they were, we would've gotten some word about it."

The big alien looked down and shook his head, muttering under his breath, "But…the Shahk'Rah'Toh said the Desecrators had destroyed them." He thought for a moment longer before looking at Shepard, "Something is afoul here. My people have been told that numerous sites of the First Gods have been destroyed by your kind, yet you insist they still stand." He stood to his full height and pointed a bulky finger at Shepard, "One side or the other is hiding the truth, and I will not stand for being lied to." As he spoke, a two-inch claw extended from each of his fingertips and the scales around his shoulders and chest bristled, making him look bigger.

Shepard's hand went for his pistol, but he refrained from drawing it, "I give you my personal word, Shaiak, that we are not hiding anything from you."

"Mind your tongue, human." Shaiak's yellow eyes narrowed, "To say you are not the liars here is to accuse the Gahn'Tro'Hai of falsehood, and I will not tolerate that. We would never break the teachings of the Torhn'No'Ka."

The commander furrowed his brow, his hand still resting on his weapon, "What's the Torhn'No'Ka?"

Shaiak flexed his pointing fingers into a fist, his claws gleaming sharply in the facility's light, "It is our way of living. The Torhn'No'Ka holds my people to a standard that is above such things as lies and deceit."

Shepard shrugged, "Than it looks like you might have to accept that someone among your people has broken your holy teachings, because we're telling you the truth."

The gahn's ridge scales flared up and he spoke in a low growl, "Never."

The human commander opened his hands and motioned toward the holo pedestal that Vigil had been occupying, "Shaiak'Row, you've just had to unlearn everything you thought you knew about the Protheans not long ago. Is it that far of a stretch to say that your people are capable of such things, too? I could take you to each of the sites and show you that they're still standing quite well. We're trying to avoid a war with your race, so what reason would we have to lie to you?"

Shaiak'Row just stared at Shepard for a long moment, repeatedly flexing his clawed fingers in and out of a fist. He growled out each breath and the scales along his jaw line worked back and forth as his luminescent eyes glared for what seemed like a long time. After a long and tense moment, the big alien's claws retracted and his scales flattened out again. He took several steps away from the team, his brow and jaw scales flaring up and down as he thought.

He stared at the wall as he spoke, "My father always taught me that to break the Torhn'No'Ka was to invoke the wrath of the First Gods. It is unthinkable." He turned his head to look at Shepard out of the corner of his large eye, "Why? What good would this deceit serve?"

"Deceit never serves any good." Shepard took a step closer, "It would seem that one of your people is violating your sacred laws."

Shaiak's eyes narrowed and the ridge scales along the back of his head and spine flared up again, "Then why would they do this? Who would do this?"

Shepard shook his head, "I don't know. But I can help you find out."

The gahn's eyes widened and he nodded quickly, "Yes. I must find out who has forsaken our ways, and why they would do this." He turned and faced the team, "And though I am loathe to ask for it, I would be grateful for your help in this matter."

"We'd be more than happy to help you. Especially if it means we can avoid war with your people."

Shaiak crossed his right fist over his left pectoral as he bowed to Shepard, "I thank you, Shepard." He straightened up and looked down at himself before continuing, "If I may be so bold as to ask for my armor and weapon back, I would appreciate having them." At present, the large alien was only wearing the grey jumpsuit that he wore beneath his armor.

The commander nodded, "We'll get them for you right away. We welcome you to our ranks, Shaiak'Row."

Shepard turned to leave the room as Wrex leaned closer to him, "Could I have a word, Shepard?" His eyes darted toward the gahn, "Away from him?"

Shepard furrowed his brow, "Sure." Wrex and Shepard moved down the hall out of earshot of Shaiak before Wrex continued.

"You sure we can trust him with his weapons and armor, Shepard?"

The commander frowned, "If he wants to help us stop his people from attacking any more colonies, then why not?"

"Just that." Wrex nodded tersely, "He _wants_ to help us. He seems a little too eager to find the root of the problem. He may just be trying to play us."

Shepard crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind him, "How so?"

Wrex shrugged, "Vigil tried to reeducate him. He may think that was some kind of brainwashing process. He may think we're just trying to feed him a pack of lies. He may not have changed his mind at all." He looked down the hall at Shaiak, "He may be trying to work it all from the inside out."

The human Spectre shook his head, "Wrex, you've been around for while, right?" The krogan nodded in response.

"And in your travels, you've done some things just because your instincts told you it was the best course to take, right?"

Wrex shrugged again, "A few times."

"Well, that's what I'm doing now. My gut feeling tells me that we can trust Shaiak. We want to prove that we're the good guys here, and not trusting him like an ally is not the way to do that." Shepard stood up and took a step closer to Wrex, "And I need your support on this. If you've got reservations about working with the gahn, then tell me now. If not, then please put your skepticism aside long enough to help avert a galactic war. You with me?"

Wrex just stared at Shepard for a long moment, working his jaw from side to side as he thought, a very human tendency he seemed to have picked up in his years. Finally, after a quick glance back at Shaiak, he responded.

"I don't like it, but I trust you, Shepard." He straightened up and put a finger in Shepard's chest, "Don't make me regret it." He turned and left the hallway.

Shepard watched him walk away, breathing a relieved sigh. It reminded him of that time on Virmire when he and Wrex's argument had degraded to the point where they had guns in each other's faces. And like that time on Virmire, Wrex was placing his trust in Shepard's judgment. Shepard looked down the other end of the hall, watching Shaiak, Ashley, and a few marines talking in the computer room. Now, all he had to do was make good on what he'd told Wrex. He knew his gut feeling was right on this; it was just a matter of convincing everyone else of it. Shepard allowed himself a self-satisfied nod. They'd made an ally, but the plot was also getting even thicker. Who among the gahn would want to falsify information about destroyed Prothean ruins? More importantly, why would they want to in the first place? Questions had been answered and more had come up in turn. They were questions that had to be answered soon, because the fate of millions rested on the answers. Shepard walked over to rejoin his wife and the gahn in the computer room, satisfied that they were one step closer to finding all the pieces of this puzzle.


	9. Chapter 9

9

Shepard paced a slow circle in the _Normandy_'s comm room. He'd just sent his long-overdue mission report to the Council a few minutes ago and was expecting them to answer any minute now. With him, sitting in one of the chairs, was the gahn, Shaiak'Row Ven'Tohlas'Aye. His presence would make this report interesting, to say the least.

Shaiak looked over at Shepard, "Are you certain your Council will believe all this?" Before they left Ilos, Vigil rigged up a set of translation filters that he downloaded into a speech overlay device that Shaiak now wore attached to the collar of his armor.

Shepard nodded to him, "They'll take some convincing, but I think they'll come around." As if on cue, the hologram pedestals came to life with the four Council members.

The turian councilor spoke up before everyone else, "Commander, I assume you have a good reason for your most recent report taking so long?"

The commander stood at parade rest and nodded, "We've been very busy lately, councilor. As my report states, we've made significant progress."

Councilor Anderson nodded, "Yes, about your report, commander. We understand that you have one of the alien soldiers in custody. Is this true?"

Shepard nodded again, "Yes, sir, but 'custody' isn't quite the right word. I believe I stated in my report that the alien soldier is now working with us."

The turian Councilor crossed his arms, "Is he now? Forgive my skepticism, commander, but I find it hard to believe that even you could turn one of their soldiers against his own race."

Shepard looked at all four councilors as he spoke, "I understand that it would be hard to believe. That's why I've asked the alien soldier to speak for himself." He looked back and nodded to Shaiak as he stood and came within range of the communication monitors, "Councilors of the Citadel, allow me to introduce Shaiak'Row Ven'Tohlas'Aye, air warrior and soldier of the Gahn'Tro'Hai. He can explain better than I can." Shepard stepped aside and allowed Shaiak to proceed explaining his recent capture and change of mind to the Council. His detailed explanation took nearly half an hour, but it was very thorough and covered all the angles, which was what the Council needed to hear.

The gahn wrapped up his explanation with gesturing toward Shepard, "The commander helped to show me that not only was everything I'd been taught since youth vastly in error, but also to expose what may be a conspiracy within the ranks of my people. I now work with him to find the traitor. In so doing, I hope that our races can avoid open war."

The asari councilor nodded and looked at Shepard, "Very well, commander. I hope your efforts prove successful, but do be careful. A change of mind in one soldier does not turn the army. You and Shaiak'Row still have his entire race against you. It will not be easy."

Shepard shook his head, "I wasn't expecting it to be."

She nodded in return, apparently satisfied with the response, "Good luck, commander. We eagerly await your next report."

Councilor Anderson folded his arms, "And do try to make it a little sooner than the last one, please."

The commander suppressed a smile, "I'll do my best, councilor." With that comment, the four holograms faded away.

Shaiak turned to face Shepard, "A strange military you serve here, Shepard. None of our soldiers are allowed to report directly to our people's leaders."

Shepard shrugged, "I'm part of a different kind of military. I'm what's known as a Spectre. We're the protectors if intergalactic peace and we report directly to the Citadel Council."

The big alien's brow scales rose up, "Interesting. I must learn more of your people when we have the time."

Shepard nodded in response, "We'd love to share our cultures with you, but right now, we have bigger things to worry about." The door opened and the team started filing in one by one. Once Ashley, Wrex, Garrus, Liara, and Tali were all seated, Shepard called their meeting to order.

He cleared his throat before continuing, "Alright, everyone. I assume you all know why I've called this meeting. First of all, we have a little order of business to take care of." He gestured to Shaiak standing next to him, "This is Shaiak'Row Ven'Tohlas'Aye, pilot and air warrior of the gahn. He's working with us to help fish out a possible conspiracy within his people's ranks. Just so we're clear, if any of you have reservations about working with him, speak your mind now." He waited for a moment to let anyone with protests speak up with them. When no one raised any complaints, he looked at Shaiak, "Welcome to the team, Shaiak." The big alien bowed to Shepard before taking one of the empty seats. As Shaiak sat down, Shepard noticed Tali eyeing him suspiciously. Given her recent experiences, He made a mental note to approach her in private about any objections she might have to working with Shaiak.

The human Spectre folded his arms across his chest as he continued, "Alright, now to the meat of the ordeal. We need somewhere to go from here. The best logical course would be to try to infiltrate one of the gahn bases and see if their network would have anything. We'd be looking for suspicious files from someone a little higher in the ranks. Thoughts?"

Shaiak spoke up immediately, "It will not be that easy, Shepard. Since my capture, our forces have no doubt moved the base on Virmire to another planet in the cluster."

Garrus gave a turian approximation of a curious furrowed brow, "Wait a minute. How could they move the whole base? There were permanent buildings under construction there."

Shaiak shook his head, the scales around his jaw line working back and forth as he spoke, "You obviously do not understand our military's way of thinking. If the location has been compromised, we will spare no effort to remove ourselves to somewhere more secure, even if it means demolishing partially built structures."

Shepard nodded, "So Virmire's out. Do you have any idea of where they might have moved?"

Shaiak shook his head, "There is any number of planets that were suitable. Virmire was just the best option at the time. But let us not forget about the other two bases. They would not have had cause to relocate."

The commander looked at floor as he thought out loud for a moment, "Right. There was one in the Styx Theta cluster and the other in the Voyager cluster." He nodded to himself, "We'll start with Styx Theta. We'll need to see if we can get into the gahn network and go fishing for anything that might indicate that they're falsifying information to their soldiers. If we don't find anything, then we can pretty much eliminate the idea of the conspiracy being on their end, which means we'll start searching our own military networks for anything fishy." He looked at Garrus, "Do you and Tali have what you need to get in and out of their system?"

Garrus glanced at Tali before looking back, "All of our infiltration software is designed for code breaking. We'd need a decent hacking browser if we're going to go snooping around in their systems, and neither of us have one."

Shepard looked around the team, "Anyone know where we can get that sort of software?"

Wrex nodded, "I know someone who can get us what we need. He's a bounty hunter, though he prefers the term 'freelance law enforcement specialist'. He can get us something."

The commander looked at Wrex, "Where is he?"

"His name's Jack DeWolfe. He normally hangs around on Noveria. If he's not there, he's out hunting down some poor sod for the credits on their head."

Shepard looked at everyone, "So we make a quick pit stop on Noveria to get Garrus and Tali the software they need, then we're headed to the Styx Theta cluster to see if we can get some answers. Anyone have any thoughts?" No hands went up and no voices were raised.

He nodded, "Alright. You all know what to do. Dismissed."

Nearly everyone stood and filed out of the room. All but Ashley left. She stood and walked up next to her husband, wrapping her arm around his.

Shepard nodded toward Shaiak, the last one out of the room, "So what do you think?"

Ashley looked at Shaiak briefly as the door closed behind him, then back at Shepard, "I think he's legit. If his people are as honor-bound as he makes them out to be, then I think we can trust him."

Shepard looked at her, "That's a lot, coming from you, given your outlook on aliens in general."

She shrugged as her gaze fell to the floor for a moment, "Well, I've since had reason to reconsider. Especially at the urging of one Com. Gabriel Shepard." She sighed before continuing, "Styx Theta doesn't have that many habitable worlds, so that should help limit our search."

Shepard shook his head, "Your thinking too human again, Ash. We don't know what kind of lungs the gahn have. They may be able to breathe a wider variety of gasses then us." He scoffed lightly, "Man, we don't even know if they _do_ breathe."

Ashley chuckled, "On that note, I supposed Dr. Chakwas will want to study Shaiak up and down a few times. She'll be…"

The comm PA blared with Pressley's voice, "_Commander! We have a situation in the hold!_"

The commander nodded, "Talk to me, Pressely."

"_It's the quarian! She's gone nuts! She's drawn a gun on that new alien! We need you down here, stat!_"

"I'm on my way." Shepard started running with Ashley behind him even before Pressley finished speaking. He bolted out of the comm room, down the stairs, and slapped the lift button when they stepped in. He silently cursed the lift for being so slow as it took them down to the hold.

When the door opened, Shepard took in the situation in a glance. In the center of the hold, Tali was holding her shotgun in one hand, pointing it at Shaiak, who was barely two meters away from her. Advanced healing or not, a shotgun spread at that range would kill. A few marines were standing at a distance with weapons drawn, but no one was doing anything just yet.

"Tali!" Shepard took several steps forward, "Tali, what are you doing?"

"Stay out of this, Shepard!" She stared intently at the gahn in her sights.

He shook his head, "You know I can't do that, Tali. Just put the gun down. I don't want to have to…"

"Her quarrel is with me." Shepard was silenced by Shaiak raising his hand toward him, "I must deal with this." He took a step closer to Tali, "Young one, what have I done to deserve your anger?"

Even though no one could see her face, none could mistake the pure indignation in Tali's voice, "Your scum killed Garak when you attacked the Flotilla. You took away from me the only man who I ever loved. I'm simply returning the favor."

Shaiak hung his head for a moment before looking at Tali, "Merely one of many such atrocities my people are guilty of against your kind. I apologize on my honor what you have suffered." He took a deep breath before going on, "I cannot bring back what you have lost. In recompense, I put myself at your mercy." He took a step closer and knelt to one knee in front of her, putting her shotgun evenly level with his face, "My life is in your hands, to set free, or crush at your whim. Do what you know to be right."

Shepard fought the urge to run in there and tackle Tali to the ground and disarm her. If it was bad before, it was worse now. Shaiak was the key to getting through to the gahn. If Tali wasted him, they'd be back at square one and staring down the barrel of war with the gahn. It took much of his soldier's discipline to keep himself restrained.

Tali just glared at Shaiak, who only stared back with big luminescent eyes. She grabbed her shotgun with her free hand and pulled the slide, readying a charge. She held the gun in a death grip, her hands shaking with tension. After a long and tense minute, Tali lowered the gun and took a step back. She dropped the gun on the deck and sank down to her knees, where she covered her visor with her hands and started crying.

Shaiak crouched lower and leaned in closer to her, "I am truly sorry for your loss, young one."

Tali looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry. Please understand; I loved him so much."

The gahn put a big hand on her petite shoulder, "You have lost much; a loss I cannot begin to understand. My life mate awaits my return on my homeworld." He scooted closer and looked her in the eye, "But you have this solemn promise on my honor: I will end this. I will find the source of this conflict, and I will stop it so that no one else will lose their life or their happiness at our hands. Of that, I assure you."

Tali just looked at him for a moment before she bowed her head and nodded slowly. Shaiak stood up as Liara came to Tali's side and led her away to the med bay to lie down for a while. Shaiak watched as they stepped into the lift and the doors closed behind them.

Shepard walked up to him and shook his head, "That was a very gutsy move, Shaiak."

The big alien just stared at the lift doors for a moment, "I could see in her eyes that murder was not her way. I knew she would not kill me, but I also knew that she must find closure about her loss." He looked at the doors again and shook his head, "In my centuries, I have never seen a greater love than that."

The Spectre nodded, but arched an eyebrow when he heard what Shaiak said, "Centuries? Just how old are you?"

Shaiak looked at him for a moment and sounded almost nervous when he answered, "I…I am only eight generations of age. I am considered young for military service."

Ashley's eyes widened, "Gabe, a generation is thirty five years."

Shepard's eyes widened as well, "So you're two hundred and eighty years old?"

One of Shaiak's brow scales raised, equivalent of arching an eyebrow, "Two hundred eighty…star cycles? Yes. I was younger than average when I began training."

Garrus piped up from where he was standing by the Mako, "That makes sense, given his race's physiology. Their bodies' advanced healing properties would no doubt prolong their lifespan."

Shaiak nodded, "It's common for our elders to live as long as thirty generations before passing on."

Shepard nodded appreciatively, "Which would put their life spans roughly on par with asari." He looked at Ashley, "I'm going to go see how Tali's doing." She stayed in the hold as Shepard and Shaiak both entered the lift and rode it to the upper deck. As soon as they walked into the med bay, Liara immediately gave them a hush sign to keep quiet. Shepard saw the source of the hush being the sleeping quarian on one of the med gurneys.

The commander nodded toward Tali as he spoke in a stage whisper, "How is she?"

Liara looked back at her and shrugged, "Given how she fell asleep as soon as she laid down, I would guess she has not been sleeping well since the attack on the Flotilla, understandably so. The doctor feels that she just needs time and rest."

Shepard nodded as he made mental note to pull Tali from ship duties as much as possible for a week or so. He was about to turn to leave when he noticed Shaiak. The big alien had walked over to the dead gahn on the far gurney and was standing there over him, silently starring at the body. He walked over to him but kept his distance, just in case.

Shaiak just stared at the body for a long time before he closed his eyes and shook his head. He then started speaking under his breath, what sounded like a prayer or final rite in his own language that his translator wasn't filtering. He drew the dagger from his hip as he removed his armor gauntlet, then held his arm over the gahn's body, slicing the blade over his bare skin. Shepard held an arm out to restrain Dr. Chakwas as Shaiak let some of his blood ooze from the cut and drip down onto the corpse's chest. He let three drops of the thick black blood drip down before he lowered his arm. He ended the rite by touching the body's forehead and holding his fist to his own chest with his head bowed for a moment. Shaiak returned his hands to his sides as he slowly opened his eyes.

"He was killed in combat, wasn't he." He spoke without looking away from the alien body.

Shepard nodded, "He attacked us while we were investigating one of the destroyed colonies. We had to defend ourselves. He took his own life in the end."

Shaiak touched the blade wound in the center of the corpse's chest as Shepard walked up next to him, "Kah'Ri'Kai, a sacred rite of my people. It was an honorable death. His spirit will find its way to the halls of the fathers." He looked at Shepard, "His name was Kollack'Tan Ven'Sarris'Ore. We were close friends, fellow initiates together at the academies. Though it saddens me to know he is gone, I am thankful that he fell in battle as he desired." Shaiak nodded slowly, "At last, you are at peace, my friend." He turned to face the commander, "We must find the cause of this conflict, Shepard. Too many have died already. We must end it so no others will die." He bowed his head again and looked at the corpse of his fallen friend. Shepard's eyes widened when he saw that the fresh slash wound on Shaiak's arm had already completely healed by now.

The big alien said one final rite to his fallen brother before turning and leaving the med bay. Shepard nodded to himself as he watched Shaiak leave. These events had pretty much shored up in his mind that Shaiak's intentions were legitimate. Not only was he intent on restoring the honor of his people, but if he truly was acting as a double agent, he would have had no qualms about hurting or killing Tali to save his own skin. The mere fact that he tried to solve the dispute peacefully spoke volumes about him. Shepard's glanced switched between the gahn body and the sleeping quarian on their respective med gurneys. Shaiak was right. Too many innocents have died already in this conflict. They had to act fast to ensure that no more would be lost.

------------

Shepard, Ashley, and Wrex walked into the hotel bar of Port Hanshan, Noveria's capital. The frozen ice ball's only redeeming feature was that it was outside of Citadel space, and that was only good if you were a corporation that wanted to conduct illegal research. The scene had calmed a little bit down since the former administrator, a salarian named Anoleas, was hauled off to the Executive Board to answer for his corruption, but it was still a place where you wanted to watch your back.

The commander walked into the bar and looked around. His first target was his informant, a turian named Litheirax. He was just a mechanic, but he had the pulse of Port Hanshan, and not much that went on here got by him. He found the turian sitting at the fountain, close to the entrance. He stood up when he saw Shepard walk in. The commander motioned for his team to stay back as he walked up to Li.

The turian greeted him with an open hand as he walked up, "Good to see you again, commander."

Shepard nodded as he shook the turian's hand, "Likewise, Li. Thanks for responding to my message."

The turian shrugged, "Most of the time, people just look for local gossip from me. It ain't often that someone needs information like this." He sat back down on the bench, "So, what brings you back to this frozen crap-cicle, anyway?"

Shepard sat down next to him, "I'm looking for someone. The name 'Jack DeWolfe' ever cross your desk?"

Li stared straight ahead for a moment, his mandibles working back and forth as he thought, "Sounds familiar. Bounty hunter, right?" Shepard nodded

He nodded in return, "I've heard of him. Runs with a tough crowd. Not really well liked around here, but he spends his time here anyway. I think he's around here somewhere." He twisted around to take in the rest of the bar. He looked around before pointing out a man sitting relaxed at one of the tables, "That's him."

Shepard turned to look at the man Li had identified. He was a rough looking type, with a well built frame. He had a rounded face with somewhat sunken eyes and the beginnings of five o'clock shadow around his jaw line. His hair was up in a well maintained high-and-tight flattop. Shepard immediately identified a pistol and a shotgun on him. He was sitting alone with his feet hiked up on the edge of the table.

The commander nodded as he turned back around, "Thanks, Li. Here's what I owe you." He pulled a sheaf of about five hundred credits out of a thigh pouch. He always kept a substantial sum of hard currency around in case of the shady types he dealt with occasionally, who preferred the untraceable cash as opposed to an electronic transfer.

Li shook his head and waved it off, "Nothing due, commander. I just do this to break up the boredom."

Shepard shrugged, placing the credits back in the pouch, "Well, alright. Thanks again." He stood and went back over to the team, who were patiently waiting for him to finish his business with Li.

He walked up to them and nodded toward the man at the table, "That look like him, Wrex?"

The krogan warrior looked over and immediately nodded, "That's him."

Shepard nodded, "Alright. Let's go." He leaned in closer to both of them, "Get my back. I don't trust everyone around here." The team walked up to Jack DeWolfe's table. As they approached, he took a sip of his drink, then started talking without looking at them.

"Com. Gabriel Shepard, Alliance Military and Citadel SpecTacRec. Your parents were both Alliance Navy and you were the sole survivor of the Akuze incident." He looked up at him with a mischievous smirk on his face, "Sound about right?"

Shepard stopped about a meter and a half away and folded his arms, "You seem to know a lot about me, Mr. DeWolfe."

The bounty hunter nodded, "Call me 'Jack'. I make it a point to know as much as I can about high profile people such as yourself, commander. Often times, people like you have work for someone like me." He sat back in his chair and looked at him, "You'd be interested to know that there're a number of fairly large bounties on you from various criminal organizations."

The commander furrowed his brow, "Interesting. So why haven't we met in a more official capacity before?"

DeWolfe scoffed, "I'm nobody's fool, commander. I'm not stupid enough to go tangling with a Spectre." He folded his arms over his chest, "So, what can a freelance law enforcer do for the first human Spectre?"

Shepard pulled a datapad out from a belt pouch and handed it to him, "I need a hacking browser that matches these specs. Would you have something like that?"

DeWolfe looked at the datapad, "Triple-weave encryption reading with covert navigation enhancements. Pricey." He looked over the datapad at him, "I might have something like that. But you got to show me the coin first."

Wrex stepped up and spoke up, "Merchandise first, Jack."

The next moment went by in a flash. Before Shepard knew what happened, DeWolfe had shoved his chair back from standing fast and had drawn his shotgun to point it at Wrex, who had in turn pointed his own shotgun back at DeWolfe. In the blink of an eye, the two were staring down each others gun barrels.

DeWolfe glanced at Shepard out of the corner of his eye, "What's _he_ doing here?" He kept his attention on Wrex and there was a new edge in his voice,

Wrex smirked at DeWolfe, "I'm touched that you remember me, Jack. How's that capture record of yours doing?"

"Forty two and one, no thanks to you, Wrex." DeWolfe looked at Shepard, "Lose the krogan or no deal."

Wrex shook his head, "I'm not going any…"

"Wrex." Shepard cut him off, "I think it'd be better if you left. Wait for us at the bottom of the elevator."

The krogan glanced at him briefly before holstering his shotgun and leaving with a dissatisfied grunt. As soon as he was gone, DeWolfe holstered his own shotgun and sat back down.

He leaned his elbows on the table, "You never told me you know Wrex. I should double the price for that."

Shepard turned and looked at him, "You care to share with me how you know Wrex?"

DeWolfe sat back, hiking one of his booted feet up on the table again, and looked up at the commander, "Eight years ago I was given a contract to bring in Urdnot Wrex. High paying client. I tracked him down, like any good bounty hunter would, and I confronted him. But he got away from me. Managed to escape right at the last minute." He leaned forward and pointed at Shepard, "Forty two captures and only one escape. My record was flawless before I took that contract. Thanks to that krogan, I've lost a couple of high paying clients because of that one blasted escape."

Shepard nodded as he heard the explanation. He was apprehensive about the next step of the deal. He'd worked with DeWolfe's type before and he had a feeling that he knew where this was going to end up going.

He took a breath before going on, "On the note of our deal. Do you have it, and how much?"

DeWolfe sat there for a moment, working his jaw around as he thought, before he spoke again, "I have a few copies. Twenty five large. Software like this is highly regulated, you know. Not exactly easy to come by."

The Spectre breathed a silent sigh of relief as he pulled a sheaf of credits out of his thigh pouch and separated the appropriate amount, "You surprised me, DeWolfe. I fully expected you to ask for Wrex in return."

DeWolfe shook his head, "You obviously don't understand the mercenary mind, commander. Wrex may have gotten away from me and made me look bad in front of a lot of people with a lot of money, but he also earned my respect. That alone is reason enough that I'll never hunt him again." He took his leg down and leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table, "But neither of us are here to rehash history. Is it a deal or not?" He pulled an OSD out of his pocket that he plugged into his omni-tool to show Shepard that it did indeed contain the software. Shepard handed over the credits and DeWolfe handed over the disk. With their dealings complete, the Spectre and the bounty hunter parted ways. Shepard and Ashley took the elevator down to the main level of Port Hanshan, where they found Wrex leaning against the wall waiting for them. He stood up and fell into step with the other two as they passed.

Shepard looked back at Wrex as they walked, "Before you bite my head off, Wrex, I'm sorry that I had to cut you out back there, but it had to be done."

Wrex cocked his head to one side, "Cut me out? No. I wasn't mad about that."

The commander stopped walking and turned around to look at him, "Well you looked pretty cheesed off just now, so you were mad about something."

Wrex shrugged, "I was just pissed that I didn't get to start a bar fight."

Shepard rolled his eyes as he turned around and resumed walking, "Well, if _that's_ all it is…" He looked at the OSD in his hand as they rode the elevator down to the docking bay. It wasn't another piece of the puzzle, but it was the best way to find then next piece. Shepard smiled to himself as they passed through customs and headed back to the _Normandy_. They were well on their way. Hopefully soon, they could get to the bottom of this mystery. Then, there just might be some rest for the weary.


	10. Chapter 10

10

Shepard sat at his desk in his quarters, reviewing intelligence files. Ashley was seeing to her duties down in the hold while he went over all the intel they'd gathered since first contact with the gahn. He knew they had powerful weapons. He knew they had strong armor. He knew they took no prisoners. He knew their bodies had advanced healing properties. But now he also knew that they weren't necessarily fighting this conflict on purpose. Given that the gahn were under false pretenses that the Council races had destroyed a number of Prothean ruins, the only conclusion was that someone within the gahn infrastructure was falsifying the information and using it as cause to go to war. Shepard leaned an elbow on his desk as he read the report on the screen. He scratched his head with his free hand as he repeatedly asked himself the question that was bugging him right now. Why? What was the point of falsifying information just to go to war? Shepard was familiar with races that fought just for the sake of fighting. One of his own crew was a krogan, a race known for its warmongering attitude. But this didn't strike him as that. There was a reason behind this, but what was that reason?

The chime on the door sounded and Shepard turned around, "Enter." The door opened with Tali standing behind it.

The quarian took a step in and looked at the commander, "Shepard, do you have a moment?"

He turned his seat around and pulled another over, "Sure, Tali. What's up?"

Tali sat down carefully, looking somewhat nervous. She took a deep breath before speaking again, "I…I wanted to apologize for my behavior down in the hold several days ago. I shouldn't have threatened the gahn the way I did." She hung her head, "I could have hurt someone, badly."

Shepard shook his head, "No need to apologize, Tali. I understand. You weren't thinking clearly at the time. You've been under a lot of stress since the…"

"What goes on inside my mind does not excuse my actions, Shepard." She shook her head, "I should have exercised more control. That's why I can't be part of the crew anymore."

Shepard's head jerked backward in surprise, "What? Who said you can't be part of the crew because of that little mishap?"

She looked him in the eye, "I did. If I'm going to be this distraught over Garak's death, then it's obvious that I'm going to be more of a detriment than an asset to your mission. I can't stay with you all if it's going to be this bad."

The human Spectre shook his head again, "Tali, it was a one-time occurrence. You can't judge yourself based on one incident that was the result of a lot of stress and emotions coming to a boil. One incident, I will remind you, in which no one was injured."

Tali shook her head, "But what if someone had been injured, Shepard? What if I had pulled that trigger? The gahn would be dead, and you'd have lost a lot of progress on this mission; all because of me. Would you be so easy on me if that had happened?"

Shepard's face hardened with his resolve, "I'd like to think I would be."

Tali shook her head again, "Whatever you may think, Shepard, I can't stay in the crew if I'm going to be acting like this." She stood from her seat, "This is my decision, and I'm…"

The commander never let her finish her sentence. He stood from his chair and grabbed her shoulder, pushing her back down in to her seat. He towered over her and pointed at her as he spoke.

"No, this is _my_ decision. This is _my_ ship. _I_ make the rules. _I_ decide who gets kicked off my ship. You've done nothing to merit being removed, so as far as I'm concerned, you're still a very valuable part of this crew. So I'll not have any more of this talk of leaving just because you're a little stressed out. Do you understand me?"

Shepard could see through Tali's visor that her eyes were wide with surprise. Clearly, she hadn't expected this reaction from him.

Tali glanced around briefly, "But, what about…"

"No 'buts'." He cut her off with a wave of his hand, "Do you understand me?"

She nodded slowly, "Yes, I think so."

"Good." Shepard gave a firm nod as he fell back down heavily into his own seat, "Now that I've had my _own_ little stress attack." He took a deep breath to calm his nerves before continuing, "Tali, you can 'what if' yourself right into a psycho ward if you're not careful. 'What if someone was hurt?' 'What if the gahn was killed?' Who cares? It didn't happen, and that's the important part." He pointed at her again as he went on, "Whether you see it or not, you exercised more than enough restraint in that situation when you _lowered_ your shotgun _instead_ of pulling the trigger. You had the perfect opportunity to blast Shaiak's head right off his shoulders; I'd like to see him heal up from that. You had the opportunity to avenge Garak, a life for a life." He leaned forward in his chair, "He put himself at your mercy, for heaven's sake! You could have made him swallow a live nuke if you wanted him to. But the point of it all is that you didn't. You had the power to snuff him out where he stood, but you didn't. You knew what you were doing was wrong, and you made yourself stop. That's what counts in the end." He sat back in his chair and waited for a moment before going on, "Now are you just going to sit there staring at me, or are you going to see to your duties in the hold?"

Tali nodded slowly as she absorbed all that Shepard had just said. Even though he couldn't see her mouth, he could tell by her voice that she was smiling, "Yes, commander. I'll get back to my duties." She stood up, "Thank you, Shepard. I'm sorry to have disturbed you."

The commander rubbed his eyes with one hand as the quarian left his quarters, "Don't worry about that, Tali. I'm already disturbed. There's nothing you can do to make it any worse." He swung his seat back around to face his desk, muttering under his breath, "I'd have to be disturbed to do _this_ job." He went back to reviewing intel reports, idly wondering if every Spectre had to deal with this sort of thing.

The next few days en route to the Styx Theta Cluster were relatively uneventful. Joker had to pull a few fancy maneuvers to avoid detection by both a pirate raider and a gahn patrol ship at the same time. By drawing enough attention to get the two ships to start fighting each other, the _Normandy_ escaped without a trace. This incident also allowed Garrus to get a rather detailed scan of one of their ships. With Shaiak's help to decipher some of the alien writing, he determined that the gahn were not as well off as they initially thought. The gahn ships had strong armor and powerful weapons, but they also had relatively weak power systems and little to no kinetic barrier protection. This meant the situation wasn't quite as bad as they thought at first, but they'd already seen what their weapons and armor could do, so it wasn't much of a consolation to anyone.

Shepard stepped off the lift into the hold and found a rather welcome sight. The Mako was completely repaired from the beating it took on Virmire, Tali and Garrus were hard at work studying the gahn armor, and Shaiak was talking with several crew members near the quartermaster's table. The crew had seemed to accept Shaiak's presence a lot more readily than Shepard expected. He thought they would be harboring feelings against him for his people destroying the colonies. The incident with Tali several days ago may have had a lot to do with why they accepted him. They saw that he was sincere about helping them, not out to play them from within. Even Tali had come to an understanding with the big alien.

The commander walked up between Garrus and Tali for a status report, "How're things going here?" He watched one of their consoles as they ran a simulation of a weapon being fired at the armor and exploding with little effect against it.

Garrus typed something into the console and ran the simulation again, "We've been running down several leads about the armor. Liara mentioned that it reacted rather adversely when she used her warp against it. Since disruptor torpedoes are similar, we decided to run some tests to see if that would work." The simulation failed again and Garrus shook his head, "But the results we keep getting are minimal at best."

Tali froze the simulation midstream and gestured to the screen as she spoke, "From what we can tell, impact disperses the effect of the torpedo too much to be of use. Right now, we're trying different ways of realigning the mass effect projectors to focus the effect in a more controlled area."

Shepard watched the simulation run and fail again before an idea came to mind, "Try this one just for laughs. Reset the torpedo's detonation range to a proximity burst about a half a dozen meters from target. See what that gets you."

The turian Spectre shrugged as he input the changes, "With how many times the sim has failed, I'll try just about anything right now." He set the changes and ran the sim. As programmed, the torpedo on the screen detonated about six meters away from the target. This time, the disrupting effect of the torpedo splashed against the gahn armor with full force in a focused area, causing a fair amount of damage.

Garrus looked at the screen in surprise, his mandibles opening and closing once, "Interesting. The proximity burst reduces the dispersion of the warp effect."

Tali nodded, "It did more damage than impact would. The amplified disruptor effect must interfere with the armor's molecular reinforcement."

"Hmm. I didn't think that'd actually work." Shepard pointed at the screen, "Fiddle with this technique some. Figure out the best range for the proxy burst, then start looking for ways to focus the torpedo's detonation a little more."

Garrus nodded and immediately went to work on his console, "That's a lot more than what we had before. Thanks, commander."

He moved on to the next table, where Liara and Ashley were looking over one of the gahn dark energy cannons and Shaiak's rifle. Shepard leaned on Ashley's shoulder when he walked up to see how they were doing.

He nodded toward the weapons on the table, "Any progress?"

Liara looked up and nodded, "With Shaiak'Row's aid, I have learned much about the gahn's dark energy weapons. The weapon consists of a firing core, focusing chamber, and barrel assembly. The core is a sample of radioactive dark matter and a mass effect projector. When the weapon fires, the projector creates a potent positive mass effect field focused around the dark matter. The sudden increase in mass causes the sample to radiate dark energy in excess. The dark energy is then transferred to the next chamber, where it is condensed and focused before being ejecting through the barrel."

Shepard nodded as he listened, "What about jamming it? Have you made any progress along that line?"

The asari scientist shook her head, "I have been unable to find any way of jamming the weapon. I have tried various biotic abilities and several technological devices, but nothing seems to work. It would seem that the design is naturally very resistant to external tampering."

Ashley looked at her husband, "It's helped me come up with a few ideas for some weapon mods, though. I need to do some tinkering to see if they'll work."

Shepard shrugged, "As long as my rifle doesn't explode when I pull the trigger, I'm game to try it."

At that moment, Joker came over the intercom, "_Commander, we're two minutes out from the Styx Theta relay. We'll be making the jump soon._"

"I'll be right there, Joker." He turned his head and kissed Ashley's cheek, "Gotta go, hon. See you later."

Shepard took the lift back up to the CIC deck and took his usual place at the command platform. He punched a few buttons on the rail that zoomed the galactic map hologram in on the Styx Theta cluster. He now had to try to find which planet the gahn were camping out on, a task which brought the phrase "needle in a haystack" to mind. He leaned forward on the rail and shook his head. The problem was that he didn't even know where to start looking.

"There." Shepard turned his head when he heard Shaiak's voice behind him to find the big alien pointing at something on the map.

He looked at where the gahn was pointing and shrugged, "What's there?"

Shaiak stepped up onto the platform and pointed again, "There. You can't see it?"

The commander looked at where the gahn was pointing. He was pointing to a vacant area of space near the Erebus System. There was nothing there, no stars, planets, anything.

He furrowed his brow, "See what? There's nothing there."

Shaiak pressed several buttons on the rail controls that enlarged the area he was pointing to, then started looking around on the consoles, "How do you adjust the sensory input for ultraviolet?" Shepard pointed out the controls and the gahn made several adjustments. After a moment, the image screened through a sensory filter that revealed a large gahn rune with a number of words scrolling next to it.

Shaiak stepped back and gestured to the view, "That's what I was referring to."

Shepard's eyes widened when he realized it. He couldn't see what Shaiak was pointing out because it was in a wavelength of light he couldn't see.

He looked back at Shaiak, "You can see UV?"

The big alien shrugged, his brow scales rising with the gesture, "It surprises me more that you cannot."

The commander shrugged, "Humans can do a lot of things, but that is not one of them." He looked at the image for a moment, "So now that I can see it, what is it?"

"It's a fleet beacon. It's standard procedure to drop one near a large fleet deployment. It serves as a waypoint and displays all of the information about the fleet to friendly vessels."

Shepard nodded, "So what information is this one displaying?"

The big gahn leaned forward and read the information for a moment before speaking, "Cruiser Flotillas 'Sharp Saber', 'High Justice', and 'Mighty Blade'. Sixty squadrons. Five warrior legions. Planet: Nepmos."

The commander nodded as he listened, "Nepmos, is it? Sounds like they have a lot deployed there."

"That's an understatement." Shaiak nodded toward the map, "The deployments I just listed cover approximately forty warships and almost ten thousand soldiers."

Shepard's eyes widened, "Wow. You guys don't believe in second rate efforts, do you." He looked at the galactic map and enlarged the Erebus system, the planet Nepmos in particular, "Nepmos. The Alliance has a listening post on that planet. We can get in touch with them to get a sitrep."

Ashley nodded as she spoke up from her station, "If you mean the one that was under siege by a hive of rachni last time we were here, then yes, we do have a dirtside LP."

Shaiak shook his head slowly, "If you have an outpost on this world, then it's doubtful it's still there. Our forces would have destroyed it before establishing the base."

The commander chuckled and shook his head, "Then _you_ obviously don't understand _our_ military's way of thinking. We use low-profile covert intelligence posts to gather information on our enemies. If the LP staff did their jobs right, then your forces never even knew they were there."

One of Shaiak's brow scales rose, "Curious. I've never heard of that concept."

"Get used to it. We do it a lot." Shepard pushed the comm button on the handrail, "Joker, set course for Erebus Nepmos. Bring us in quickly, but quietly."

"_You got it, commander._"

He closed the comm and looked at Shaiak, "What kind of sensors do your ships normally have?"

The gahn mimicked a very human shrug, the metal of his armor clicking in protest with the motion, "IR, UV, motion, thermal, and visual sensors normally."

Shepard nodded as he looked at the map again, "Nothing that the _Normandy_ can't hide from."

"Hide?" Shaiak looked around that the ship, "How can you hide ship in space? They emit too much heat and radiation."

The commander motioned to the ship around him, "The _Normandy_'s equipped with state-of-the-art stealth systems. I can't go into the details with you, but I can say from experience that it's very effective."

Shaiak nodded slowly as he looked around the CIC, "I'm noticing that your military does a lot of hiding. Rather contrary to our way of fighting."

Shepard just shrugged, "Like I said. Get used to it. We do it a lot. It's worked for us so far, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The big alien extended his right hand claws, which he used to scratch the side of his head, "It's clear I have much to learn about your culture and military."

Joker's voice came over the CIC speakers, "_We've entered the Erebus system, commander. ETA to Nempos: seventeen minutes._" He paused for a moment, "_Uh, commander, Nempos is crawling with gahn ships. Are you sure that's where you wanted to go?_"

Shepard nodded, "Positive, Joker. Bring us as close as you can to LP Alpha's coordinates and try to make contact. I'll be in the comms room for the next several minutes if you need me." He closed the comm and activated the ship's PA system, "All ground team specialists, report to the comms room for briefing in five minutes. I say again, all ground team specialists, comms room, five minutes." With that, Shepard shut off the PA and turned to follow his own order, with Ashley and Shaiak following him. What he referred to as the "ground team specialists" were his team: Ash, Garrus, Wrex, Liara, Tali, and also Shaiak for the time being. Shepard walked into the comms room and turned around to lean against one of the holo pedestals while the others took a seat. Over the course of the five minutes he specified, the rest of the team slowly drifted in. Once the last of them, Garrus, took a seat, Shepard stood up and called the meeting to order.

He crossed his arms and started slowly pacing in front of the holo pedestals, "Alright everyone, we're in the Erebus system, en route to Nepmos. Just a dirty little rock, hardly any atmosphere, good place to hide a base. Joker's bringing us in to make contact with LP Alpha on the surface. We're going to use the listening post as a waypoint. We're going to land there and figure out where the gahn base is before we proceed. Once we know where it is, myself, Garrus, Tali, and Shaiak will infiltrate the base, get what we can from their networks, and get out, hopefully before they know we're there. If we're spotted, we get what we can from the network, and make a hot dust off before they can blast us into tiny little pieces. Any questions?"

Ashley's hand went up, "Do you have a contingency plan if you can't get out of the base?"

Shepard shook his head, "Hopefully, it won't come to that, but if it does, we'll just have to fake it. One thing I do know is, if we do get spotted, we might have to evac the LP, which means the crew might be hot-bunking for a while." He looked at their gahn ally, "Shaiak, what kind of patrols can we expect once we're on the ground?"

The big alien shook his head, "It differs with the size of the base. With this one, we can expect no fewer than three sky platoons flying patrol around the perimeter. There will most likely be a platoon of tanks on standby if the patrols raise the alarm."

"So we get spotted by the air patrols and we'll have tanks breathing down our necks. The moral of this story is not to get spotted." Shepard looked around the room, "Anyone else?" No hands went up, so he nodded, "Alright. Let's get to it. Tali, Garrus, you two gear up and standby in the hold. Shaiak and I'll join you once we're setting down at the listening post. Dismissed."

Shepard led the way out of the comms room as the team dispersed to their assigned duties. He took his place on the command platform and activated the galactic map, switching the view to external visual sensors. They were in extreme high orbit over Nepmos, and with good reason considering all the gahn ships that were circling the planet like sharks. This was probably as close as Joker dare take them without getting spotted.

He hit the intercom, "Joker, you make contact with the LP yet?"

"_Well, yes and no, commander. I've got a fix on their position, but I've got no comm traffic from them whatsoever. It looks like they're running dark. It could have something to do with the enormous gahn base that's only one or two dozen clicks from the outpost perimeter._"

The Spectre shrugged, "That'll have to do. Bring us in. We'll make contact once we get there."

"_Aye, aye, commander._"

Shepard watched as the view started to draw closer to the planet. As they closed the distance, the commander noticed one particularly large ship in the gahn fleet break formation and start on an outbound vector, appearing that it was leaving the system. What intrigued Shepard about this ship so much was that it was almost twice the size of the largest ships in the formation.

Shaiak looked at the view and his big eyes widened, the scales on his head flattening down, "What?" He looked at Shepard, "Commander, stop the ship immediately."

Shepard looked at the gahn and furrowed his brow, "What?"

The big alien grabbed the handrail in front of him and leaned forward, "Commander, you must stop the ship immediately!"

Hearing the urgency in Shaiak's voice, Shepard smacked the intercom button, "Joker, all stop, quick quiet!" Joker didn't bother responding as Shepard felt the ship decelerate very suddenly and a number of monitors throughout the CIC went dark, showing that they'd cut all external signals and emissions to reduce their signature. He looked at Shaiak, whose gaze was intently fixed on the holographic view.

Shepard stepped off the platform and approached the big alien, "What's wrong, Shaiak?"

He pointed to the big ship in the holo view, "The _Kay'Rah'Dorn_. It's the Shahk'Rah'Toh's personal flagship, the most powerful vessel in our fleet. It's a dreadnought that has hundreds of weapon emplacements and sensors strong enough to see through any stealth, including yours."

Shepard looked at the holographic view when he realized the threat, "Are we in range?"

"Pray to your gods that we're not." Shaiak finally looked at him, "If we are, then you'd best make peace with them quickly."

Every eye in the CIC was fixed on the holo map and Shepard held his breath as they watched the ship fly by. For a ship that size, the _Normandy_ would be little more than target practice. Everyone had good reason to be scared. Several long and very quiet moments passed as they watched the enormous vessel near the location of the gahn fleet beacon. When it arrived, the dreadnought's engines flared brightly, accelerating them to FTL speeds. Everyone in the CIC breathed a sigh of relief, having had a close brush with danger and living to tell about it.

Shepard took a breath to calm his nerves, "They're gone."

Shaiak nodded slowly, "That was close." He looked at the holographic view of empty space the ship had just been in, "I had hoped before to some day be assigned to the _Kay'Rah'Dorn_. How little did I know that I would one day fear its great strength."

"It's funny how the tables can turn on you like that sometimes, and I say that from experience." Shepard turned to take the command platform again, "Alright, everyone, the threat's passed. Let's get back to it. Joker, bring systems online and resume course for the listening post." The CIC came to life again as the monitors activated and the crew returned to their duties. Shepard looked at the hologram in front of him briefly before something came to mind.

He looked as Shaiak, "This Shahk'Rah'Toh you keep referring to, he wouldn't happen to wear some kind of fancy armor, would he?"

The big alien nodded in affirmation, "His armor is ceremonial and ancient, but still as strong as any other warrior's armor. It's as practical as much as it is ornamental."

The commander nodded slowly, "So that's who I saw."

The gahn's brow scales furrowed, "You saw the Shahk'Rah'Toh?"

Shepard nodded, "On Virmire, I saw one of your people wearing an ornate suit of armor arriving at the base. Considering the fancy welcome they gave him, he looked like somebody important."

Shaiak nodded again, "That would be him. He personally oversees the activities of all deployed forces. No doubt, he was there to collect a status report from the commanding general."

Joker's voice came over the PA, "_Commander, we're on approach for the listening post. We'll be going atmospheric in five._"

Shepard nodded as he hit the intercom button, "I copy, Joker. Thank you." He looked at Shaiak, "We'll be landing shortly. Let's get down to the hold and get geared up." He turned to head down the stairs with the big alien following. Needless to say, this next mission was going to be a little risky. Low profile, high risk, with minimal support, but it was all in a day's work for a Spectre of the Citadel.


	11. Chapter 11

11

Finding Listening Post Alpha was easy. Getting in underneath the gahn AAA networks was the hard part. Due to extensive anti-aircraft coverage, Joker was forced to navigate an evasive course through a series of mountain passes to approach the outpost. It went down as planned, the only complication being the landing was two minutes further out than the original ETA. The _Normandy_ set down gently a few dozen meters outside the perimeter of LP Alpha. Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and Shaiak were all gathered in the forward area of the hold as he felt a soft rumble through the deck. A moment later, a nearby crewman opened the hold doors, showing the dusty brown surface of Nepmos for the desolate, volcanic rock that it was. The only thing between the _Normandy_'s hold and the planet's toxic atmosphere was the environment shield, a standard-issue energy field on docking bays and the like that kept the atmosphere in and the vacuum out. Shepard's and Garrus' helmets had been fitted with vacuum masks, and Tali was already good to go in her evo-suit. With a quick glance at Shaiak, Shepard saw the big alien press a button on his arm gauntlet, causing several metal panels to close over the exposed portions of his helmet and seal his armor for vacuum. He made a mental note: the gahn do breathe, and they can't breathe this planet's atmosphere.

Shepard looked at his team briefly and nodded as he started forward. The surface of his armor shimmered white briefly as he passed through the evo shield and descended the ramp to the ashen terrain. As he approached the LP, he could see the outpost's commanding officer, Staff Lt. Marie Durand, approaching with a handful of men. She'd been promoted from 1st LT to Staff LT in light of her display of tactical excellence, holding what was left of the outpost garrison together under rachni attack.

Lt. Durand stopped in front of the commander and saluted, "Good to see you again, sir. Welcome back to LP Alpha."

Shepard returned her salute, "At ease, lieutenant. Looks like you've done a good job locking this place down."

The lieutenant looked back at the outpost briefly, "It's not easy. I've had the LP running dark for almost a week now. Those bleedin' aliens are practically in our backyard. We can't even sneeze around here without them hearing it."

The commander nodded, "Hopefully you haven't been running dark enough to keep your eyes open. I'm here on Spectre business, and I need some intel about the alien base."

Lt. Durand shrugged, "We'll give you as much as we have, but it's not much."

Shaiak stepped out from behind Shepard, "Any information you can…"

"It's one of the aliens!" He never finished his thought before the soldiers started drawing weapons on him.

In retrospect to the situation, Shepard recalled that he never actually saw Shaiak's arm move. One moment, the big alien was standing there with his hands at his sides, a blink of an eye later and his dagger was at the closest marine's throat with only a fast blur of motion in between.

Shaiak's big eyes narrowed to luminescent slits behind his visor, "I don't want to harm you, but I will defend myself if necessary."

Shepard stepped forward and waved the assault rifles down, "Stow your weapons."

Another soldier piped up from behind his gun, "But, sir, he's…"

"I said stow them, marine! That's an order!" The troopers all lowered their rifles in response to the harshly barked command. Shaiak slowly took his blade from the marine's neck and replaced it in the sheath on his back, taking a step back to give them some space.

Shepard looked at Durand, "I don't appreciate your men drawing guns on members of my team, lieutenant."

"My apologies, sir." She shot a berating look at her men, "It _won't_ happen again. I assumed the alien was with you when I saw it."

Shaiak's raised a brow scale behind his faceplate, "It?"

The commander gestured to the big alien, "This is Shaiak. He's a gahn. He's working with us to find the cause of this war. We think there may be a conspiracy within the gahn military ranks."

The big alien stepped forward and bowed, "The honor is mine, lieutenant."

Lt. Durand nodded in return, "As long as it…_he_ doesn't start killing my men, I'm okay with him being here." The group started walking back to the outpost, "I'll give you everything we've got on the alien base. It's about twenty three clicks south of here, almost in spitting distance, and it's swarming with alien troops. I think they have a couple of frigates landed there, also."

Shepard nodded as he listened, "Has anything strayed this far north? Patrols? Sentries?"

Durand shook her head, "Nothing so far, but that may only be a matter of time."

Shaiak shook his head in response, "No patrols would come this far out from the base. As long as the base perimeter is secure, we usually don't care what happens on the rest of the planet."

The commander smirked behind his vac mask, "Time to prove the fallacy of that thinking." He looked at Durand, "I'm going to need all your tactical intel on the base. Visuals, sat recon, intercepted transmissions, anything." Lt. Durand organized and packaged all of the collected intel while the _Normandy_ crew unloaded the Mako from the hold. Once prepped, the team piled in and set out for the base. Unfortunately, that meant a rather uncomfortable ride. A Mako's interior was cramped even for three normal-sized people. To make room for a creature as big as Shaiak, the mechanics had to remove both of the passenger seats. Tali sat up in the turret while Garrus drove, and Shepard and Shaiak went over the intel about the base, planning the infiltration and objective points.

Shaiak sat crunched in a ball on the floor of the compartment with his arms wrapped around his legs and looked around at the tiny interior of the vehicle, "I'm suddenly missing my glider."

Shepard shrugged, "It's all we've got, unfortunately." He called up his omni-tool and projected a layout of the base on the far wall of the compartment, "Here's what we have. It looks like the base is pretty heavily defended. I don't see any decent infiltration points, but you probably know something I don't."

Shaiak looked at the projection for a long moment before pointing to something, "Here. This would be our best option."

The commander looked at the region he pointed out, "What is that?"

"It's a temple-barracks, a sort of mobile shrine. Every legion deploys one so we may have the blessing of the First Gods on our efforts. Everything within five meters of the temple-barracks is considered sacred ground, so no soldiers may be deployed there. The defenses will be lightest at this point." Shaiak looked at the layout for a moment longer and arched a brow scale, "In fact, it's strange that they would deploy it so close to the perimeter. Such an important structure should be much deeper within the defenses."

Shepard nodded, "Well, it's a mistake we can take advantage of. Where are those guard tanks you mentioned before normally stationed?" Shaiak pointed to what looked like a motor pool in the middle of the base.

The commander frowned, "That's pretty centralized. Makes it easy for them to get to any part of the base quickly, and only makes our job harder. Where do the sky platoons normally fly out of?"

Shaiak pointed to what looked like a barracks area on the projection, "The barracks includes a small hanger that houses the air warriors and their gliders. A base this big will have three platoons flying a circling triangle pattern around the perimeter at all times. We'll need to be very careful."

Garrus looked back over his shoulder, "Commander, we're coming within visual range of the base."

Shepard swapped places with Tali in the turret and used its magnifying scope to get a good look at the base. The place was locked up tighter than a crab's butt. A prefab wall surrounded the entire perimeter of the base and three groups of gliders circled the area like flocks of vultures. The commander quickly identified the tank platoon on standby for alerts. Each tank sported two heavy guns on a turret and several anti-infantry guns, an appearance that brought the word "smithereens" to mind. Chances were the armor was all but unbreakable. This was going to get interesting.

Garrus pulled the Mako to a stop out of sight behind a low ridge and the group clambered out to approach the base on foot. The base was seated at the bottom of a wide and shallow ravine, making it very easy to spot incoming intruders. Shepard moved his team from rock to rock and ridge to ridge, doing everything possible to stay out of sight. One of the sky platoons soared overhead, their jet gliders making that eerie whirring sound as they passed over. Shepard snapped his fist into the air and pointed down, signaling everyone to hit the dirt. Shepard and Garrus dropped prone while Tali and Shaiak hunkered down behind a large boulder. Once the patrol had moved on, the commander gave the signal to form up and move on. It was an exercise the team had to do more and more as they came closer to the base, making things more and more risky as they went.

The team finally assembled at the perimeter wall of the base, a marked step of progress given how tight everything was. Shepard paused and held his open hand into the air, turning it around and making a fist, the signal to draw weapons and remove safeties. They moved carefully along the base of the wall in a single-file line, cautious of their movements and concealment. Shepard consulted his area map and nodded to himself when he saw that they were near the temple-barracks. He turned around and stowed his rifle on his back before lacing his fingers together and forming a step-up. He lifted Tali up over the wall first, followed by Garrus, who in turn rotated around and offered a hand to pull the commander over. Shaiak simply jumped to grab the top of the wall and pulled himself over, even though the wall was almost three meters tall. Shepard was glad for that, because the big alien was very likely too heavy for a human to lift. Once over the wall, they stacked up in the shadow of the temple-barracks and waited. Shepard and Shaiak leaned around the corner to check the situation.

The gahn pointed to a larger structure several dozen meters away, "There. That's the Battle Hall. It would house all of the base's mainframes."

Shepard looked back at the two techs, "How close do you need to be?"

Tali glanced back at Garrus briefly, "Within ten meters at least."

"That doesn't make this any easier." Shepard looked back at everyone, "I'll take point. Follow me only when I signal to." Once he had received an acknowledging nod from everyone, Shepard pulled his rifle down from his back again and checked the scene. The only guards he could identify were a good distance away, so it was clear to move for now. He darted from the temple-barracks to the next building over and crouched down in the shadow, looking back to see if his movements had been noticed. The commander followed the wall of the building until he came to the corner and peeked around. Once he was assured the guards weren't looking, he waved back to everyone, signaling them to come to his position. Once everyone stacked up again, Shepard made his next move. They continued to move in the same pattern for the next several minutes, Shepard moving forward to make sure it was clear before everyone coming to join him. Several close encounters with the base guards nearly blew the whistle on them a few times, but they made it to their destination without a problem. Shepard thought that wasn't bad, considering he had never been officially trained as an infiltrator, although you tend to learn a lot about stealth and concealment when hiding from thresher maws. They came to the side of the Battle Hall and stacked up in the shadow to make their next move.

Shepard looked back at Garrus around Shaiak, "This close enough?"

The turian lowered his rifle and consulted his omni-tool, "I'm getting a good signal. Give us a little time and we should be able to find something useful." Tali likewise put down her shotgun and started working on her own omni-tool.

Shepard nodded and looked around, making sure they were still concealed. All of a sudden, he was starting to get that bad feeling he always got when something was about to go wrong. He was hoping they could get out of the base before it did.

Garrus' beady eyes widened behind his vac mask, "Well, well. What have we here? I'm not certain, commander, but I think I might be able to rip the entire base network from here."

The human commander looked back at him, "Isn't that risky?"

The turian nodded, "Rather, but if this software is as covert as I hope it is, than there shouldn't be a problem." Garrus' omni-tool flashed once and a low, resonating tone started sounding through the base, an alarm. Shepard gritted his teeth. Somehow, he just knew they wouldn't be lucky enough to get out of the base before things went sour.

The commander looked back at Garrus, "What happened?"

Garrus' hand started working frantically over his tool, "A manual scan. Somebody detected the security breach. They can't lock us out, but I can't shut off that alarm either."

Shaiak looked at Shepard, "It's only a matter of time before they get organized and hunt us down."

The commander nodded in return, "Then let's make sure they can't get organized." He leaned around the gahn to Garrus, "How long do you need to rip the network?"

The turian glanced at Tali, who only nodded, before looking back at the commander, "Five minutes, at most."

"We'll give you ten. Shaiak, you're with me. We need to sow a little chaos." Shepard turned to follow the wall of the Battle Hall and dashed to some nearby storage crates. Both soldiers peeked out to check the situation. Gahn soldiers were running everywhere in response to the alarm and troops were assembling outside the barracks. Further in the distance, another platoon of jet gliders swooped out of the hanger into the sky.

Shaiak pointed toward a trio of thick, cylindrical towers, "Fuel tanks. That's our best target. Without the fuel, they won't deploy the tanks unless absolutely necessary."

Shepard pulled a grenade from his launcher, "What kind of fuel is it?"

"Tritium-oxygen."

The commander's eyes widened and he looked at Shaiak, "Oxy-trit fuel? That stuff's nuclear! It'll blast half the base into orbit!"

The big gahn shook his head in return, "Not if you hit it right. An explosive as big as that grenade will only create a chain reaction, not a mass detonation. Just make sure you get it near the top of the tank."

Shepard shrugged, "I hope you know what you're doing." He armed the grenade and flung it toward the top of the fuel tank. No sooner had it snapped on to the metal did the commander hit the detonator, lighting off the explosive. Not even a second following, the fuel started to detonate down the length of the tank until it hit ground level, where it exploded brightly. That explosion spread to the second tank over and started a chain of detonations up and down its length, which in turn spread to the third. By the time the display of fireworks was done, there was nothing left but flaming debris, and dozens of gahn soldiers scurrying around trying to put the fires out.

Shepard raised his eyebrows, "That was…more effective than I thought it would be."

Shaiak nodded and looked down at him, "I may be an air warrior, but I received high marks in demolition courses during training."

The commander nodded, "I won't argue with the results. Let's get back to…" He never finished his sentence before a burst of energy struck the crate he was leaning on, burning a fist-sized hole in the side. Several gahn soldiers had identified where the grenade came from and were opening fire. Shepard raised his rifle and returned fire, though he knew it would do little good at this range beyond collapsing their barriers. That alien body armor was just too bloody strong. He fired a burst that pinged harmlessly off a soldier's helmet, not injuring him but dazing him enough to stop firing momentarily. Shaiak stood up from behind the crate and fired a dark energy blast from his rifle. His shot punched clean through his target's body armor and took him off his feet, akin to being hit by a magnum round at close range. He fired again and took down another soldier, causing the rest to move to cover.

Shepard dropped down behind the crate to let his rifle cool and looked up at Shaiak, "Are you sure you're not Gahn Special Forces or something?"

The gahn fired another shot before ducking as return fire came at them, "Never underestimate a young warrior, commander."

"You're almost three hundred years old. You're hardly young." Shepard jammed his rifle's heat sink back in before standing to fire. Several more bursts of energy came in rapid succession as more troops came to reinforce the gahn position.

He looked at Shaiak, "Hold here. I'll move around and flank them."

The gahn knelt down behind the crates, "Make your move and I'll cover you." The commander stood and started running across the expanse toward another set of crates, drawing fire as he ran. Shaiak stood up and unleashed a rapid-fire burst of dark energy blasts on the opposing gahn position. Apparently, those gahn DE rifles had a full-auto setting nobody knew about, and a very effective one at that. Shaiak laid down suppressive fire long enough for Shepard to get to cover, where he began firing on the gahn position, as well. The gahn forces were now pinched between two positions of fire, having to split their fire to respond to both.

Shepard dropped behind his cover to let his rifle cool when he heard Garrus come over the comm, "_Commander, we've completed the download. We're getting out of the base now._"

He nodded, "Get to the Mako. Shaiak and I will meet you there." He switched his comm to the gahn ally's channel, "Shaiak, they've got the package. I say again, they've got the package and are making a run for it. We've got to find our own way out now."

Shaiak nodded to Shepard from where he was, "_Acknowledged. We'll have to fight our way out._"

Shepard stood to fire again, but when he took aim, he saw the gahn troops disengaging and falling back. He shook his head. No way it could be that easy. Just then, an energy blast from the air struck the ground near him, lifting a column of dirt. The commander shielded his face from the blast and looked up to see one of the sky platoons coming around for another pass. They lined up on him and fired off a series of blasts at his position. Shepard dove backward as one blast obliterated his cover, and scrambled to his feet to run as several more struck all around him, all of them too close for comfort. Shepard ducked and rolled on his shoulders as the gliders skimmed hardly a meter over his head, coming around for another pass. There was no cover and his KBs wouldn't hold up to a direct impact from one of those DE cannons. Shepard gritted his teeth. Somehow, he never imagined it ending like this, being a fish in a barrel just waiting to get shot.

Shepard was somewhat taken aback by what he saw next. As the sky platoon came in for their killing run, the commander saw Shaiak leap out of nowhere, using those muscular legs of his to jump a good three meters into the air. He grabbed the lowest of the gliders as it passed, causing it to sag in the air with his added weight. The pilot looked around surprised and grabbed his rifle when he found Shaiak hanging on to the wing. Not giving him the chance to get rid of him, the big alien grabbed the pilot's foot and yanked hard, pulling him off the glider and sending him rolling across the ground upon landing. He then pulled himself up onto the glider and took control, veering sharply and coming around toward where Shepard stood. The other gliders in the platoon had broken off their run with the disturbance and were forming up further away to attack again.

Shaiak brought the glider to a stop to within a meter of the ground near Shepard, "Climb on if you want to live." Not looking a gift-horse in the mouth, Shepard immediately clambered on as more DE blasts struck near them. Shaiak pulled the glider around and grabbed some altitude before kicking in the thruster and jetting away toward some of the base's taller buildings.

Shepard looked back at the pursuing flyers as several energy blasts zipped by them, "Can we lose them?"

Shaiak shook his head, still looking forward, "Not doubled up like this, no. But we can outmaneuver them."

The commander looked at the big alien, "How do you figure that?"

"These gliders are steered entirely by weight shifting. With two passengers, we're heavier than they are. That makes us slower, but more maneuverable." Demonstrating his point, Shaiak shifted his weight hard left, jinking the glider in the same direction to avoid pursuing gunfire, "Just follow my instructions exactly and we might live through this."

Knowing that Shaiak had experience with these vehicles, Shepard wasn't one to complain about following orders. The gahn guided the glider toward a large, low building, looking like they were going to fly over.

At the last moment before cresting the edge of the roof, Shaiak threw his weight forward, "Lean right!" Shepard leaned himself to the right as he had been told, holding on to Shaiak's shoulder to keep from falling off. The combined movement of both passengers threw the glider into a sharp spiral dive, skimming the edge of the structure roof and whipping down the side toward the ground. Shepard looked back to see their pursuers sailing over the edge of the roof and turn hard to get back on their tail. One glider sailed a little too close, clipping the edge and rolling across the roof. The commander nodded to himself. One down, five to go.

Shaiak leveled the glider out only a few meters above the ground, hugging the wall of the building and kicking up a cloud of volcanic dust in their wake. DE blasts flew by from above and behind them as they sped along the ground at breakneck speeds, the pursuing gliders trying to get a good shot. They hugged the wall further until it turned into an alley, a building on either side of them and barely half a dozen meters in between. At the end of the alley was not a way out, but what appeared to be a large tower blocking the way that they were speeding toward very fast.

Shepard's eyes widened, "Shaiak?"

"I know it's a lot to ask, commander, but you must trust me." That was trust that turned out to be well placed. Two meters from the tower, Shaiak threw his weight backward, pulling the glider into a sharp climb straight up the side of the tower. Shepard looked back again to assess their pursuit. Most of the gliders pulled into a climb while one pulled back a little too late, sheering one wing off on the tower and tumbling to the ground. Shaiak leaned upward at he held the glider in the climb, shooting up past the top of the tower and continuing higher.

Shepard looked back at the quickly receding ground, "What's the maximum altitude on these things?"

Shaiak looked back briefly, "We've already passed it."

The commander's eyes widened behind his vac mask, "What?!" Shaiak shifted his heel to step on a button on the glider; a button that collapsed the wings and killed the engine! The big alien folded his arms across his chest as they leaned back and began to fall, and Shepard reinforced his grip on the gahn's shoulder. Shaiak straightened out to fall head first, sliding straight through the formation of pursuing gliders at high speed. Shepard held on tight as they continued to freefall, the ground getting much closer very fast. At the last moment, as Shepard's life flashed before his eyes, Shaiak threw his arms out and tossed his weight to one side while simultaneously stepping on the button again. The glider leveled out and came to life as the wings snapped out again and the engine fired up. He pulled up hard, bringing them level within a meter of the ground. Shaiak crouched down on the glider, capitalizing on the speed he'd built up. Having survived aerial acrobatics like that, Shepard made another mental note about their new alien ally: Shaiak _definitely_ knew what he was doing on a glider.

The gahn pressed a button on the gauntlet of his armor and pointed toward the base of a comms tower they were approaching. As he adjusted his aim, Shepard noticed the guns slung under the glider tracking on where he was pointing. He arched an eyebrow. The targeting system must be similar to a gunship's helmet-mounted sights. Shaiak pointed at his target, the base of the tower, and pressed another button. The glider responded to the command by firing a pair of DE bursts at the tower. The shots splashed against the tower and exploded in a gout of blue flame, causing the tower to lean and begin to fall.

"Hold on!" Shaiak crouched further down on the glider and leaned forward, holding the forward edge with one hand and accelerating toward the falling structure. Shepard braced himself for whatever acrobatic insanity Shaiak had in mind. They whipped under the falling tower as it came down, collapsing to the ground just as it passed them. Their pursuers were not so lucky. Two of the remaining four flyers piled into the collapsing tower at full speed, their gliders exploding brilliantly and the pilots being flung forward by the momentum. A third pilot tried to evade, but wound up sheering off a wing of his glider on the tower's edge, causing him to spiral through the air to the ground. The final pilot pulled himself to a stop just before hitting the tower. With most of his unit incapacitated, he wisely broke off pursuit and headed back. Shaiak kept the glider at full speed until they were clear of the base's AAA net. Fortunately, something as small as a glider was too small to target accurately, allowing them to slip out without a fuss. He then pulled around to where they left the Mako, the flight taking less time than the walk had. Garrus and Tali were there waiting for them, as ordered. Initially, they drew their weapons when they saw a gahn flyer coming at them, but stowed them right afterward when they saw Shepard on it, too. Shaiak brought the glider down and killed the engine, and Shepard staggered off uneasily.

Tali steadied him as he wobbled over to lean on the Mako, "Are you alright, commander? You look a little…pale."

Shepard nodded, "A little air sick, but otherwise fine." He nodded to the gahn, "Thanks for the save, Shaiak, but if it's all the same, remind me to never fly with you again."

The big alien stepped off the glider and knelt down to check it over, "You humans seem to have weak stomachs."

Shepard shook his head, "Not normally. Only when doing a HALO jump on a tin-foil paper airplane." He took a deep breath, trying not to hurl in his vac mask, "Garrus, I hope you don't mind driving. I need a few minutes to get my innards under control again." The team piled into the Mako to head back to the _Normandy_, all with the exception of Shaiak, who chose to ride his new toy back to the ship. Without the gahn's massive form, the Mako's interior seemed overly spacious now. Shepard sat in the back and looked up at the dark sky through the forward viewports. This data they'd collected had better be worth what they just went through to get it. It was a step in the right direction, a step that would hopefully lead to getting to the bottom of this mystery. As far as Shepard was concerned, any step in the right direction was a welcome one.


	12. Chapter 12

12

The data pulled from the gahn base network proved to be more valuable than anyone could have imagined. Between the two of them, Garrus and Tali had been able to rip a copy of the entire base network, which included information on nearly every gahn military movement within half a dozen clusters. Alliance intel processors were uncertain whether to congratulate them or smack them, since they'd been given a goldmine of information on the gahn military, but now they were up to their eyeballs in work processing it all. Everyone should have been elated at a haul like that, except for one minor problem. There was little to no information about who or what was calling for this war. Every tech-head on the _Normandy_ had been combing through screen after screen of data for almost two days only to find everything _but_ what they needed. After stopping off at an Alliance deep space outpost to resupply and drop off the LP Alpha troops, the _Normandy_'s crew set out again in need of the next step of their plan.

Shepard sat down in the comm room next to Ashley as the rest of the team took a seat. Garrus had called everyone in for a briefing about what they'd pulled, hoping for some differing points of view to bring something to light. Once everyone was seated, the turian called up the holoscreen.

Garrus closed his omni-tool and looked to everyone, "First of all, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to help out with this. I know everyone is busy, but I'm pretty much at my wits end. We all know about the recent information raid on the gahn base on Nepmos. The raid was well worth it and turned out a wealth of information on the gahn military. Fleet deployments, reserve status, resources, tactics, a whole slough of info that we really needed. The problem is we have next to nothing regarding chain of command. If we could find the commanding officer's orders, we might be able to follow the chain from the bottom up and figure out if there's a broken link somewhere. Unfortunately, I think we snagged every part of the gahn network _except_ that part. I was hoping someone else might notice something I might have missed."

Shepard sat back and crossed his leg over the other, "What do we have so far?"

Garrus referred to the holoscreen, pointing out what he referenced with his omni-tool's pointer, "We have only a small amount of data relating to force deployment. The base on Nepmos had simple orders: set up shop and await further instruction. As far as I can tell, that was the orders for all three bases in the three separate clusters. They were lying low until they received new orders from the high commander, the Shak'ro…What was he called again, Shaiak?"

The big alien nodded understandingly, "The Shak'Rah'Toh." He pensively stroked his mouthless chin with a clawed finger, "If I may interject, I speak from experience when I say that this strategy is rather unusual. Normally, our tactics involve a swift blitz across enemy territory. This however is quite different. It seems almost…passive."

Shepard nodded, "Which begs the question of why storm in with both guns blazing, then slow to a halt and bide your time." He looked at Garrus, "Who were the orders from?"

The turian glanced at his omni-tool, "The gahn high commander. If there was anyone else in the chain of command, I never found them."

Shaiak held up a finger, "Can you access the campaign history?"

Wrex looked at the gahn quizzically, "What good will a history lesson do? They came, they saw, they ran like spooked nathak."

The big alien shook his head, "If we can access the campaign history, we can find the reason the campaign was commenced in the first place. There should be an 'origins' section in the history. That will explain why we came here."

"Now I'm confused." Tali arched an eyebrow behind her faceplate, "Let me get this straight. You are a gahn soldier and you don't know why your people are attacking?"

Shaiak shrugged, "All I know is we came to make your races pay for your sacrilege against the First Gods. Now that I've seen data to prove that no such sacrilege exists, it means that there are other motives for the campaign; motives that are being kept secret from my people."

Garrus called up the section Shaiak referred to, displaying it on the holoscreen, "It looks legitimate enough. Obviously, it's wrong because all these information files say that these Prothean sites were destroyed, but it looks…" He trailed off briefly as he looked at his tool, "Hold on. I never saw this before."

Shepard sat up in his seat, "What did you find?"

The turian looked up at him, "Would you believe a typo?"

Ashley sat back and folded her arms, "Is it worth interrupting the briefing for a typo?"

"In this case, yes." Garrus called up the image on screen and zoomed in on the misspelled word in question. In the middle of the gahn word was a rune that appeared to be overlaying one beneath it.

Garrus looked back at everyone, "It's what C-Sec techs call a 'tagged' typo, a place where a code overlay didn't take root properly in the line. They're common in files that have been edited or altered. You see it all the time with smugglers and the like trying to get on the Citadel."

Shepard furrowed his brow, "So are you saying these files have been altered?"

The turian Spectre nodded, still looking at his omni-tool, "Now that I've taken another look at it, I'm noticing several very subtle signs that all of these files have been altered. Give me a second to filter out the changes." He punched in some things on his omni-tool and, after a moment, the image on screen was replaced with files stating the Prothean sites were intact and under observation, a stark contrast to the "dead on arrival" markings all over them previously.

The commander shook his head, "Now that looks like a normal information file, so…" His eyes darted around as he thought for a moment, "Shaiak, do you think someone altered these files and then used them as incentive to incite your people to war?"

Shaiak's brow scales were crunched together in a thoughtful manner, "I can't deny the evidence I see, but I don't understand why anyone would want to do this. The Tor'No'Kah forbids going to war unless for a good reason." He thought for a moment longer, the scales down the back of his neck bristling and flattening periodically, "Garrus, can you find out who made the alterations to these files?"

The turian agent shrugged, "That should be easy. Give me a second to run through a few lines of code." He did something on his omni-tool, which hummed for a moment before beeping and flashing at him. He pressed a button and called up an odd symbol, some kind of gahn rune, on the main screen.

He looked at Shaiak, "Does that symbol mean anything?"

"Curious." The gahn's brow scales crunched again, "That's the Shak'Rah'Toh's emblem. Are you saying the Shak'Rah'Toh altered these files?"

Garrus shrugged, "The code doesn't lie."

Shaiak's gaze fell to the floor as he muttered to himself, "Why would the Shak'Rah'Toh do this, unless he…" He thought for a moment before his luminescent eyes widened and every scale on his head bristled, "Why that stinking _jaht'du'las_!"

Shepard winced, recognizing that there was probably a good reason Shaiak's translator didn't filter that word, "What's wrong, Shaiak?"

The big alien stood and started pacing the room as he spoke, "About ten or twelve star cycles ago, there was a small resource crisis within the empire. Several much needed resources began to grow scarce at an alarming rate. It was nothing some new technology could not fix, and the crisis abated after it was implemented. It was at that time that Shak'Rah'Toh Rahkel'Vor petitioned the Kahn'Hai'Dar for permission to conduct an expansion campaign to increase our resources. Of course, the Kahn'Hai'Dar denied his request, saying the crisis had abated and that there was no need to expand the empire. He persisted though, and asked for permission three more times before finally leaving the issue alone." Shaiak stopped pacing and shook his head, "I fear that he may not have given up as we thought. Rahkel'Vor may have falsified this information to give backing to his imperialist campaign."

Liara furrowed her brow, "This sounds to be something that would have taken place within ranks much higher than your own, Shaiak. How do you know all of this?"

Shaiak's gaze fell to the floor, "My friend…the dead warrior in the medical bay…his father was a high general in the army. He learned many of the happenings of the high command from his father, which in turn he would often pass on to me. He told me of this about ten cycles ago, though I thought nothing of it at the time."

Shepard leaned forward and stroked his chin, "So, from what we have here, it looks like the Shak'Rah'Toh falsified these files, and then used them to incite the gahn people to war. With support from the population, the Kahn'Hai'Dar would have given him the go-ahead. Which leads to, special delivery: one each Gahn'Tro'Hai invasion."

Shaiak nodded, "It would appear that way. Shak'Rah'Toh Rahkel'Vor has long been regarded as overly aggressive, even warmongering at times. He would send full deployments of military forces where only a simple policing action was necessary. He may be the culprit we seek. He has both the motive and the means."

The commander nodded firmly as he stood, "Sounds like more than just coincidence to me. I'll pretty this up in a report and zap it to the Council. We'll figure out what to do next from there. Until then, everyone get some rest. You've earned it. Dismissed." On that note, he turned and headed out of the comms room, turning and descending the stairs to get to his quarters.

As Shepard walked through the door into the captain's quarters, he suddenly stopped. Something wasn't right. He could almost feel that something was wrong, almost like someone was watching him. He cautiously stepped further into the room. He heard a noise in the corner and whipped around to face it, pistol drawn and deployed. He frowned and furrowed his brow when he saw that it was only a PDA stylus that had fallen off a chair. Suddenly, there was a sharp sting at the back of his neck, and Shepard slapped his hand up to see what it was. He felt something protruding from his skin and pulled it out to find that it was some kind of dart. At that moment, Shepard's head started getting swimmy, and he felt his muscles go limp on him. He dropped his gun and fell in a heap on the deck, unable to move and slowly loosing consciousness. As his vision faded, he saw the familiar shape of a man in dark clothing walk up and stand over him just before everything went black.

------------

Everything was dark and thick. Shepard slowly awoke to a prodding feeling in his hands and feet, but he still couldn't muster the strength to move, or even open his eyes. His head felt dense. Whatever was used to knock him out must have been quite a cocktail. He slowly started to pick up voices as his brain began to sweep through the cobwebs.

"That's not what you told me when you contacted me. You promised payment on delivery. I delivered, now where's my money?" The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and distinctly human.

The voice that responded was very alien, "You will be compensated in full when your contract has been fulfilled, not before."

"What part hasn't been fulfilled? You wanted Shepard. I delivered Shepard. Once word of this gets out, I'm going to have every law enforcement group in the galaxy looking for me. You'd better cough up something to make that worthwhile, and you'd better do it quick."

"We may have further need of your services. Until then, we consider your contract unfulfilled, and your payment will be withheld."

The human voice sounded angry, "I just made myself the most wanted man in Citadel space by handing you one of the best Spectres in service, and you're going to stiff me like this? You lying son of a…"

"Please, I have no time for this." The alien voice sounded rather unconcerned, "I have to attend to the prisoner before he wakes up."

There was a pause before the human voice responded, "Fine. Deal with your prisoner. You'll get yours. Count on that." There was a sound of a door opening and closing, presumably the person leaving the room.

The commander felt his arms and legs start to come alive again, and he assumed that the cocktail finally wore off. He forced his eyes open, blinking away the brightness of the light. As his eyes focused, he looked around at his surroundings. He was in a small room with walls colored in a dark purplish blue tone. In the room with him, he saw two aliens, gahn, standing in front of him to either side, and another gahn in fancy armor further back in the room. He looked around to find himself restrained to a wall, glowing clamps securing his wrists and ankles. He was still wearing his BDUs, but that was it. No weapons and no armor. As he awoke, the fancy armored gahn looked over and nodded before barking out some alien orders to the others in the room. One of the other gahn pressed a button on a control panel that sent a tingle down Shepard's spine, jarring him to full wakefulness. Now that he was awake, Shepard recognized the fancy armor the gahn was wearing. He was in the presence of the Shak'Rah'Toh himself. Now that he had a closer look at him, Shepard noticed that the scales on the big alien's face were larger and more pronounced than Shaiak's, with the brow scales beginning to grow out and back almost like horns. Shepard noted to himself that these enlarged scales may be an indication of age among the gahn. Since Shaiak was considered young and didn't have these growths, that would likely put the Shak'Rah'Toh at several hundred years older.

The Shak'Rah'Toh looked at one of his soldiers and said something in his native tongue. The soldier quickly responded by typing something into his console. The gahn script displayed on a screen above the console that Shepard could see. Once the sentence was finished, the script changed from gahn to Basic English.

_You are the one called Shepard. Yes?_

The commander nodded, "Gabriel Shepard."

The Shak'Rah'Toh said something else and the soldier typed it out.

_What do you know of our forces?_

With that question, Shepard immediately knew what was going on. He was being interrogated. In his position, his only choice was to fall back on interrogation training from Alliance marine boot camp.

"Gabriel Shepard. Commander. Service number 5923-AC-2826." He saw the Shak'Rah'Toh's brow scales furrow when he didn't get the desired answer to his question. The alien looked at the other soldier and snarled out an order in his own language. The soldier nodded and pressed a button on his panel, sending a potent shock through Shepard's body. The commander winced and clenched his teeth against the pain as the surge coursed through his limbs and tendrils of lightning played over his body. After a moment the shock subsided.

The Shak'Rah'Toh said something to the translator, who typed it up as he said it.

_This does not have to be difficult, human. Simply answer my questions and I will allow you to go free._ Shepard snickered when he saw the statement. He believed that last part about as much as he believed that Earth was flat and Luna was made of cheese.

The Shak'Rah'Toh continued.

_What military forces have you deployed against us?_

Shepard shook his head, "Gabriel Shepard. Commander. Service number 5923-AC-2826."

The Shak'Rah'Toh nodded to the other soldier again, who responded by shocking the commander again, this time stronger and for longer. Shepard thought he was going to bite through his own jaw if the pain got any worse before the current cut off. Several long minutes followed with more questions and their subsequent answers: name, rank, and service number. And each "failed" answer was again rewarded with another shock down the spine, often more painful the last.

After a while, one of the soldiers looked at the Shak'Rah'Toh and said something in their own tongue. The Shak'Rah'Toh huffed and shook his head before pointing to the door. The soldiers protested briefly before a harshly snarled order made them leave the room. As the door shut behind them, the Shak'Rah'Toh pressed a button on the control next to the door and the blue light above it turned red, likely indicating he'd locked the door. Shepard suppressed a cringe. What did this guy have in mind for him that he needed privacy?

"I was hoping for a chance to speak with you privately, commander." The Shak'Rah'Toh looked over at him and chuckled, "I have to say that I am impressed with human physiology. You're body has withstood an electrical current that would have killed any of my people." The Shak'Rah'Toh's voice was deeper, more resonating, and more gravelly than Shaiak's, with the same thick inflection.

Shepard's head snapped up at hearing the gahn speak, "Wait a minute. You know my language?"

The Shak'Rah'Toh turned and started slowly pacing, his big hands folded behind his back beneath his cape, "I know a great many things about you and your races. I have been watching your kind for quite some time now. I must say that I find the experience to be rather…underwhelming. The more I learn of your races, the more I believe we should have wiped you from the face of the galaxy long ago."

So, face to face with his adversary, and communicating on the same plain. Maybe now Shepard could turn the tables and get some answers.

The commander took a staggered breath as the pain from his last shock began to ebb, "You…You're the Shak'Rah'Toh, aren't you."

The alien stopped pacing and nodded, "So you've heard of me. It is good that my reputation spreads amongst your people."

Shepard smirked, "Not as fast as you would hope."

The gahn leader huffed, a short growling sound, "I will see to it that your armies cower at the very mention of my name." He turned to face the commander, "I am called Valen'Sar Ven Rahkel'Vor, Shak'Rah'Toh of the mighty Gahn'Tro'Hai Empirium. I will have you know that you have been a most bothersome thorn in my side. You capture and kill my soldiers, then you are so bold as to mount a single-handed attack on one of my bases, forcing me to relocate my forces again. You have proven quite troublesome for a single human."

Shepard nodded, "I have a knack for that. We killed your men only out of defense."

"As well as twisting the minds of those you capture, I see." The Shak'Rah'Toh nodded slowly and turned away to resume his pacing, "I am well aware of Shaiak'Row's treachery, and he will be duly rewarded in a manner befitting those who betray the Empire. He, like you, will not go unpunished for long." He stopped and looked at the wall, shaking his head, "A shame really. He had such potential. He would have fit well into the new order."

Shepard furrowed his brow. This was a new twist, "New order? What new order?"

The Shak'Rah'Toh looked at him briefly before turning around and resuming his pacing, "Considering that you will never again see any others of your kind, I see no harm in telling you. Kahn'Hai'Dar Dohsar'Bah is old, and so are his ideals. I feel the time has come for someone younger, with newer, bolder plans for the Empirium, to take his place."

Shepard's face hardened. He didn't like where this was going, "And that newer, younger someone just happens to be you. Am I right?"

The Shak'Rah'Toh's brow scales rose in appreciation, "For a creature that is not Gahn'Tro'Hai, you are quite astute, human." He continued his pacing, "At first I thought it sufficient to expand the borders of the Empire, increase our resources and assert ourselves as a dominant race of the galaxy. And I would have done so quite effectively, given that my changes to the information files I have been using have instilled a deep hatred for your kind within my people. But now I see that plan to be rather lacking in…ambition. Why settle for simply expanding the Empirium when I can _rule_ the Empirium? Under my leadership, our people will prosper, and we will rise to take our rightful place as rulers of this galaxy."

Shepard frowned, "What makes you think it's your rightful place? The galaxy belongs to all races, not just one."

The Shak'Rah'Toh whipped around toward Shepard, throwing his cape around behind him, "Such is the mind of any unenlightened creature that is not Gahn'Tro'Hai. You will soon see that we deserve to rule this galaxy. We are the Gahn'Tro'Hai, First Born of the First Gods. We will rule this galaxy in their stead until such time as they call us to the plains of godhood with them."

The commander shook his head, "Your First Gods aren't gods at all. They were a race of beings just like you or me, called Protheans. And they didn't ascend, by the way. They were exterminated, by a race of machines called Reapers."

"Silence your blasphemies, Desecrator!" The Shak'Rah'Toh stepped forward and backhanded Shepard across the face, "I will not be so easily swayed as Shaiak'Row by your lies. Whereas his faith wavered and failed, mine remains strong." He turned and headed for the door, "I am finished with this exchange. My soldiers will be along shortly to transfer you to my ship." With that, the big alien's cloak trailed him out the door and it closed behind him, leaving Shepard alone.

The commander turned his head and cracked his neck to loosen it up. He was probably going to have a bruise on his cheekbone from that hit, but it could have been a whole lot worse given how strong the gahn are. Trapped and alone on an enemy alien ship, and having just learned the true plot that lies beneath the surface. Shepard shook his head and took a breath. He didn't know how he was going to get out of this one. He looked up at his wrist restraints and pulled against them, seeing if there was any way to slip free. The more he pulled, the brighter they glowed, indicating it was an active restraint system. The more resistance, the tighter it held. He tested each of the four restraints, trying to find some kind of weakness he could exploit. After nearly pulling a tendon on the leg restraints, he relaxed, resigning himself to finding another means of escape.

At that moment the door opened, but rather than gahn soldiers, a human came through. That was odd enough, but what was worse, the human was none other than Jack DeWolfe, the bounty hunter from Noveria.

Shepard's eyes widened, "You! What are you doing here?"

DeWolfe walked to the terminal and started pushing buttons, "To sum it up in one phrase: getting screwed out of a paycheck. I'm getting you out of here. Just sit tight." He pressed a button that unlocked the restraints. No sooner was he free did Shepard charge DeWolfe and pin him against the wall with his hand on his throat.

The bounty hunter's voice came slightly strangled, "Is this how you thank everybody?"

The commander held his other hand back in a balled fist, "I'm no slouch, DeWolfe. I don't know how you did it, but I know you're the reason I'm here in the first place."

"You're right. I am." DeWolfe's face showed that he wasn't all that concerned given the situation, "I snuck onto your ship in a supply crate, tranqed you, and brought you here. What're you going to do about it?"

"Whatever happened to not being stupid enough to mess with a Spectre?"

DeWolfe shrugged as best he could with a hand around his neck, "Yeah, well, money has a rather idiofying effect on people. Wouldn't you agree?"

The commander's face hardened, "Give me one good reason not to kill you right here."

"Because I'm the only way you're going to get past security alive, and you know it. Look, my deal with the gahn went sour. They stiffed me out of the money, and now I'm going to show them that that no one screws over Jack DeWolfe without a mark to show for it."

Shepard held DeWolfe up against the wall for a moment longer before letting him go. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was probably right. DeWolfe had a foot in the door with the gahn already, meaning he could get things done. Shepard, on the other hand, was the fugitive in this case, and would likely be shot on sight if they found him wandering the halls unescorted.

Shepard looked around the small interrogation room, "Where are we?"

DeWolfe stretched his neck and straightened his jumpsuit, "You're on a gahn ship. Don't ask me to pronounce the name. These aliens' language is a real tongue-twister."

The commander nodded, "I assume you have a plan for getting out?"

DeWolfe stopped straightening his suit and looked at Shepard with wide eyes, "What? You think I do this everyday? I'm making it up as I go." He looked at some security monitors over one of the consoles, "I do have something in mind, but it's a little risky. I've already contacted your ship and they'll be here in a few minutes to spring you. But that still leaves it up to me to get you out and away from the detention area and somewhere near the hanger before they arrive. Once that's done, just rendezvous with your team and you should be able to get clear."

Shepard frowned, "What's the catch?"

"The catch is that there's a heavily guarded checkpoint at every access to the detention area. They're not just going to let us meander on by without a few questions."

The commander nodded again, "So I'm guessing it's going to be the good old 'fake prisoner' ploy, huh?"

DeWolfe chuckled with a sarcastic tone in his voice, "Wow, you're quick. No wonder they made you a Spectre." The bounty hunter attached a device to the side of the consoles, causing the monitors to flicker, "Unless you've got a more original plan up that special forces butt of yours, that's what it's going to be. I've looped the cameras, so we've got about ten minutes to pull this little stunt." He pulled his shotgun from his back and primed it, "Just keep your hands behind your back and stay quiet."

Shepard huffed, "You think I'm going to trust you with a loaded weapon at my back?"

"Do you have much choice?" Shepard didn't back down and Dewolfe rolled his eyes, "Fine. I'll reset the safety if it means you'll cooperate."

Shepard nodded, "Better than nothing. Let's do this." He crossed his arms behind his back and felt DeWolfe's shotgun barrel in the small of his back as the door opened and they ventured into the halls. They maneuvered through the corridors of the alien ship, Shepard making turns whenever DeWolfe told him to. After several minutes, the unlikely pair finally came upon the checkpoint DeWolfe was so concerned about.

The bounty hunter leaned closer to Shepard, "Just stay quiet and follow my lead. Remember: you're the prisoner. Act like you don't want to be here." Shepard nodded subtly to show he'd understood. The checkpoint was guarded by three soldiers, the two on either side of the door carrying long, spear-like weapons. The door guards crossed their spears over the door and the third stepped forward, talking to DeWolfe in the gahn language and gesturing to Shepard.

DeWolfe looked at the gahn and nodded toward Shepard, "The Spectre is out here because your Shak'Rah'Toh wants him moved to his ship. I ain't been paid yet, so I'm just ensuring the safety of my investment." The gahn said something else and DeWolfe shook his head, "No, I'm not putting him back in his cell. I don't care who's supposed to do the transfer. I want to be sure those bodyguards of his don't truss up my investment before I have money in hand." The gahn continued, sounding rather agitated, and DeWolfe pointed at him accusingly, "Look, if you want Rahkel'Vor jumping down your throat because he couldn't leave on time, that's fine by me, but I'm not going to walk away from a payday." He motioned to the doors and the guards, "Now, if you don't mind?"

The gahn scrutinized the pair for a moment longer before barking an order to the door guards and pressing a button to open the door. The guards stepped aside and DeWolfe nodded his appreciation to them as he pushed Shepard through. They continued on and rounded a corner to break line of sight with the checkpoint.

Shepard looked back at DeWolfe, "Not bad. It sounded like he believed you."

DeWolfe shook his head as he checked every hallway they passed, "Actually, that went a whole lot worse than I expected. He's going to double-check the transfer records and find out that I lied through my teeth to him." He looked around behind them before continuing, "We're going to have to cut this party short. When I say 'now', turn around and hit me, then run like wildfire. It'll look like you escaped."

Shepard nodded, "You won't need to tell me twice." They continued on for another minute until DeWolfe stopped them in a four way crossing of halls.

He tapped Shepard's shoulder, "Now! Turn and hit me!" Like clockwork, the Spectre turned and belted DeWolfe across the face hard enough to put him on the deck.

The bounty hunter worked his jaw around a moment before looking up at Shepard, "I didn't mean that hard!"

Shepard pointed down at him, "I owed you that." Without further ado, he turned and bolted down the first hallway he saw. He ran until he came to an intersection, where he stopped to get his bearings. He didn't have the faintest idea of where he was going or how to get out of here, reducing his navigational abilities to guessing. He picked the right hall and started running again.

His choice turned out to be the wrong one when a gahn soldier stepped out of a door in front of him and saw him. Not wasting time with breaking his momentum, Shepard bent low and tackled the guard at the waist, taking him off his feet and down to the deck with him. He stood and tried to keep running, but not before falling to the deck again, the guard having grabbed his foot to trip him. Shepard rolled over in time to see the guard pull his dagger and swing, staking it straight down into the floor where he'd just been. He pulled it out and attacked again, but not before Shepard kicked the blade out of his hand. Now disarmed, the guard lunged forward and grabbed Shepard by the neck, picking him up off the deck and starting to squeeze. Shepard's face turned red as he grabbed the gahn's arm and tried to pry his iron grip free, but it was no good. He might as well have tried to close a jaws-of-life with his bare hands. The guard looked up at Shepard as his feet left the floor and he tightened his grip further.

Gunfire sounded from down the hallway and the gahn looked to the source as some of it splashed across his armor shields. Shepard used the distraction to curl himself up and kick the gahn in the head, causing him to drop him. The gahn fell back against the bulkhead behind him while Shepard landed unsteadily on his feet, greedily sucking in air to fill his lungs. The guard recovered quickly only to be thrown on his back again by a close-range shotgun blast, his armor having taken the brunt of it. Garrus advanced on the alien and stepped on his chest, firing a short burst into his exposed neck to kill him. Ashley moved forward with a pair of marines flanking her and she primed her shotgun again.

"Gabe, I was so worried about you." She removed her helmet and wrapped Shepard in a hug, "You just disappeared. I went looking for you on the ship, but you were nowhere to be seen. Then we got a transmission from that creep, Jack DeWolfe, that said you were here. What happened?"

"I'll explain later." Shepard shook his head as the two separated again, "Right now, we've got to get out of here. Where's Shaiak?"

Garrus shrugged as he handed Shepard a rifle and KB projector, "He said he was going to disable the ship and took off toward the engineering section. He should be done with whatever he was doing by now." As Shepard secured the projector to his belt, a purple light started flashing along the ceiling of the hallways accompanied by a horn-like klaxon, and a computerized voice spoke up in the gahn language. Garrus quickly called up his omni-tool and pressed several buttons that filtered the words into something understandable.

"_All-crew alert! Reactor core systems damaged. Core meltdown in fifteen minutes. All crew evacuate immediately. Repeat: All-crew alert! Reactor…_"

Shepard's eyes widened and he looked at Garrus, "He's got a funny definition of 'disable'."

One of the other marines piped up, "I'm guessing that means we need to run, doesn't it."

"You're darn right, soldier. Let's move!" The group turned and started back the way they came. Resistance was light as the gahn crew moved to either repair the damaged ship or evacuate as quickly as possible, and few resisted them as they moved. Those few who did were dealt with quickly. They were most of the way back to the ship when they met back up with their gahn ally.

The group was moving through the corridor just as a door along the side ahead of them opened and a gahn soldier was flung through it, stopping the team in their tracks. The soldier hit the far wall upside down hard enough to dent it and slid down to land on his head, where he collapsed in a heap. Shaiak stepped through the door after him, growling out heavy breaths. He was covered in a number of new cuts and scrapes as well as a few larger wounds that were all in the process of healing up, and he was missing the right shoulder plate of his armor. His claws on both his hands and feet were fully extended. He snarled out several deep breaths and let his claws retract before reaching down to his feet and picking up his rifle and missing piece of armor. Shepard looked through the door he'd come through and his jaw dropped. The hallway behind Shaiak was strewn with nearly a dozen dead or unconscious gahn soldiers.

Shepard looked at Shaiak in awe, "You're some kind of super-gahn, aren't you."

The big alien shook his head as he reattached his shoulder plate, "We Gahn'Tro'Hai pride ourselves on our discipline, but unbridled rage is also an accepted tactic in desperate times."

"Which means don't _ever_ piss you off." Shepard waved the team on and they started moving again, "Why did you hit the reactor?"

Shaiak shook his head again, "I didn't intentionally. I was trying to disable the engines so they couldn't pursue us, but stray gunfire hit the reactor cooling tanks. I suppose it accomplishes the same effect, though."

Shepard snorted, "Yeah, except for the whole 'running for our lives before the ship explodes' part." A soldier appeared out of a side corridor and Shaiak stopped only briefly enough to judo-throw him into the wall before continuing. Several others came into the hallway further down, but were sent back or put down under a barrage of heavy gunfire. Shepard's crew made their way through the ship until they finally came to where the _Normandy_ was docked. The airlock door had been blown clean off by a breach charge and a fireteam of marines was holding the area, presently exchanging fire with a team of gahn soldiers down one of the hallways. Everyone retreated into the ship and Shepard and Shaiak headed to the bridge.

Joker glanced back briefly before his hands started working over his console, "Good to see you in one piece, commander. Disengaging from the enemy ship now."

"Put some distance between us and them, Joker. That ship is about to go up in flames." Shepard looked at the math on the screen and noted that they wouldn't get far before they ship's reactor detonated, "Shaiak, I hope only six or seven clicks is enough to be clear of the fireworks."

"Six or seven?" Shaiak's luminescent eyes widened noticeably and his ridge scales flattened, "Commander, that is a dark matter reactor! An explosive blast radius is easily fifteen kilometers, if not more!"

Shepard nodded, "Then get us moving, Joker. We don't have time to be pretty about it." There was a pronounced shudder through the deck as the docking umbilical retracted and the stars began to turn in the forward windows as Joker angled the ship away from the gahn vessel. Shepard felt the deck start rumbling as the engines geared up for acceleration, and the sensation made his empty stomach churn. He went to a nearby station and keyed the monitor to the reverse exterior cameras, getting a good view of the ship they were rapidly flying away from. The bone white ships lights flared once before the ship exploded brilliantly from the inside, blossoming in a rapidly expanding ball of brilliant blue flame. The sensor system automatically scanned the incoming shockwave and the screen started flashing warnings as it closed on them.

Shepard looked back at his pilot, "Step on it, Joker!" He felt the rumble through the deck intensify and even a slight backward lurch as the _Normandy_'s acceleration threatened to even overpower her own artificial gravity. The bright blue shockwave continued to pursue them for several long moments before it began to fade and lose energy. The blast died down and Joker eased off the throttle to go back to more normal speeds.

Shepard leaned forward on the chair in front of him and took a deep breath, "That was close. Good job, Joker."

Joker confidently sat back in his chair, comfortably folding his hands behind his head, "No sweat, boss. Oh, and you can skip the medal this time. I'll let you off easy."

The commander scoffed, "Your generosity knows no bounds." He turned to find his wife, Ashley, waiting for him, still in her combat armor and having not even geared down yet. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her husband, holding him tightly.

She rested her head on his shoulder, "I was so worried about you, Gabe."

Shepard caressed her neck affectionately, "I'm fine, Ash." He shrugged as she pulled away from him, "Well…fine except for a few dozen volts of electricity. They tried to get some info out of me and apparently weren't satisfied with my name, rank, and service number."

Ashley nodded as they started back toward the CIC, "Then your next stop is going to be the med bay. You've been through a lot, Gabe. Get yourself fixed up."

The commander nodded, "I will. Don't worry, Ash." Ashley continued on as Pressley flagged Shepard's attention.

"Sir? We have an incoming transmission from what looks like a gahn fighter craft."

Shepard furrowed his brow and nodded, "Put it through."

The CIC speakers burst with static for a moment before a familiar voice came over, "_Hey, _Normandy._ Good to see you again, Shepard. Say, you wouldn't happen to have room for one more, would you? This fighter doesn't have an FTL drive like I was hoping._"

"DeWolfe." Shepard breathed a sigh through his nose, "Yes, we do have room for one more. You can dock at our ventral port."

"_Wow. Here I thought I'd never be able to appeal to your good graces considering our…relationship._"

Shepard shook his head, "It's not good graces, DeWolfe. That fighter's onboard computer is a lot more useful than you ever will be."

"_Well, I can hope, at least._"

The commander made a "kill" motion across his neck to Pressely to cut the transmission, "I'm going to have Dr. Chakwas look me over, and then deal with our…guest. You've got the deck, Pressley."

Shepard went first to the med bay, where Dr. Chakwas gave him a shot for the residual pain he felt from the interrogation. He then went down to the hold where he assumed DeWolfe would be by now. He turned out to be correct when the lift door opened and Shepard found the bounty hunter in the flesh. His situation, however, was a bit of a surprise. DeWolfe had his back to the wall staring down the barrel of Ashley's pistol, and Garrus and Wrex stood by with weapons in hand.

The human Spectre approached the scene and folded his hands behind his back, "DeWolfe. To what do we owe the displeasure of your company?"

Jack's eyes darted to the commander briefly, "Hi, Shepard. Just in case you didn't notice for yourself, I'm sensing a lot of hostility from your crew."

Ashley's fingers worked once on the grip of her pistol, "What gave you that idea?"

Shepard shook his head, "Put the gun down, Ash. I don't want to have to scrape his brains off the bulkhead."

She collapsed the pistol and holstered it, "I could just break every bone in his body. That's bloodless. No clean up."

DeWolfe shook his head as he stepped forward from the wall, "So hostile, this one."

"You have no idea." Shepard turned to face him, "Whereas I'm not pleased to have you on my ship, Jack, I'm not displeased either. Your presence will be merely tolerated long enough to dump your mercenary butt at the next spaceport we come to. Is that clear?"

The bounty hunter nodded quickly, "Transparently."

"Good." Shepard nodded to the krogan behind him, "Wrex, keep an eye on him. If he tries anything fishy…be imaginative." Without another word, he, Ashley, and Garrus all turned to the lift to leave.

Wrex walked up to DeWolfe with a smug smile, "So, forty two and _two_ now, is it Jack?"

DeWolfe shook his head, "Forty _three_ and one, Wrex. I did still catch him, after all. The fact that I busted him out right after I caught him doesn't mean anything."

Shepard looked at Garrus as they stepped off the lift, "Gather everyone in the comms room for a briefing in ten minutes. We've got a lot to go over." He made his way back to the CIC as the turian hurried off to carry out his order. He'd learned some things during his stay on the gahn vessel, and none of them were good. He cracked his neck as he took the command platform in the CIC. It wasn't just war that was at stake, but possibly even the fate of the entire gahn empire. Shepard shook his head. If this plot got any thicker, you could cut it with a knife. It really was true that there was no rest for the wicked.


End file.
